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Is Modern Wealthy A Scam?

The short answer is no.

There are a lot of gimmicks out there and false promises, but Modern Wealthy is not one of those. It is online business education program that offers training, tools, mentoring and support.

Let me break it down for you.

Pros
Long running online business education program.
History of helping people create online side incomes (through affiliate marketing, ecommerce, coaching, digital marketing strategies).
Ideal for students with no prior online business experience.
User friendly and in-depth online business training.
Excellent technical and strategic support.
Regular investment/improvement in the program.

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What Is Modern Wealthy?

‘Modern Wealthy’ is an online business training and support program that helps people to create a side income, and the type of life they desire.

I am one of those people so I can confidently explain what is involved. It does this by offering a combination of education and online business tools.

It is NOT a get rich quick scheme., and nor does it promise that students can get rich quick.

Is Modern Wealthy A Scam? The Modern Wealthy way

Modern Wealthy (launched in 2022) is part of the LaunchYou company that was founded by Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek. The program (previously ‘Six Figure Mentors’) has been around since 2009.

Modern Wealthy aims to help members understand the principle of Authority Marketing. This is the unique philosophy that binds all successful online entrepreneurs. Students will then apply the concept of authority marketing when building their own online businesses.


Who Is Modern Wealthy For?

Anyone who is serious on creating alternative streams of income to live the life they desire.

For the most part, that’s a life with no geographic ties, no boss and more choices.

This would suit a corporate 9-to-5 professional who wants to quit their job eventually, or for a stay at home mum who needs more income.

But to get detailed, it’s more people who have are:

  • Willing to be educated on online business topics
  • Not looking for a get-rich quick scheme
  • Willing to spend money on paid ads (if not going for content creation and organic marketing)
  • Willing to ask for help from the Modern Wealthy support team and community


What Is Included In Modern Wealthy?

There are 6 main features in the Modern Wealthy program:

  1. 7-Day Training Videos (the core training program)
  2. 180 page ‘Authority Marketing Secrets of the Modern Wealthy’ Ebook
  3. Access to the Modern Wealthy Facebook Group
  4. Affiliate marketing 101
  5. Ecom 101
  6. Free Vision Call with an online business consultant

Modern Wealthy introduction page:

Modern Wealthy dashboard preview 1

Dashboard:

Modern Wealthy dashboard preview 2

‘Authority Marketing Secrets of the Modern Wealthy’ E-book:

Authority Marketing Secrets of the Modern Wealthy 180 page E-book


Cost of Modern Wealthy

Modern Wealthy costs $37. This is fully refundable within 30 days.

Modern Wealthy includes detailed training by Stuart Ross and guidance from his Business Consultants, but should you wish to get further expert assistance with your online business there are additional ‘done-with-you’ and ‘done-for-you’ optional packages offered.


My Experience

I started with Modern Wealthy’s predecessor ‘Six Figure Mentors’ in 2019. While they are different programs, they teach similar concepts.

I went through the training modules and decided to pursue the affiliate marketing business model.

I used paid advertising and within 3 months, I made my first sale online and then continued to follow the guidance provided in the weekly live training. I was then able to reach a four-figure monthly income after another 5 months.

I also learnt how to build websites, learnt paid marketing and create content online.

In short – the online business training program was successful for me.

However this is my result and is not indicative of your results.

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Is Modern Wealthy A Scam?

A scam is defined as a dishonest or fraudulent scheme. This is not one of those things.

I was able to use the training program to create an online affiliate business and generate genuine sales and income. If you don’t have your own idea or product – you can even promote LaunchYou’s products as an affiliate.

And yes, they pay your affiliate income to you every month – without fail.

Here is a screenshot of an email notification showing the sale of an affiliate product:

Screenshot of  Modern Wealthy affiliate sale email

So I do not consider the program to be a scam. There is an actual product – which is an online business education course.


Who is Stuart Ross?

Stuart Ross is an online entrepreneur who founded and runs LaunchYou – a company that helps individuals create an online income. Stuart has been an online business education course provider for over 10 years.

He started his career as a real estate agent but became stressed out and realized that the traditional 9-to-5 route didn’t serve him.

He has since created many brands, including ‘Digital Business Lounge’ and ‘Six Figure Mentors’ which aim to supports individuals looking to create alternative income streams. Modern Wealthy and LaunchYou was launched in 2022.


Modern Wealthy Testimonials

Dan:

Testimonial of Modern Wealthy - Dan

Landria:

Testimonial of Modern Wealthy - Landria

Tim:

Testomonial of Modern Wealthy - Tim


Other Options

Modern Wealthy is an all-encompassing online business education platform that provides training, tools and support.

But there are other platforms out there that also specialize in affiliate marketing and have a range of products and offers:

1. Amazon Associates

Amazon is one of the biggest and most well-known e-commerce companies in the world, and their affiliate program, Amazon Associates, is just as popular. With Amazon Associates, you can earn up to 10% in commissions on eligible products that you promote. One of the great things about Amazon Associates is the wide range of products available, including books, electronics, clothing, and more. Plus, their cookie duration is 90 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

Pros

  • Amazon brand is known world-wide

Cons

  • Low commission rate
  • Little or no education

2. WarriorPlus

WarriorPlus is an online marketplace for buying and selling affiliate marketing software and courses.

Pros

  • Free to join

Cons

  • A lot of ‘get rich quick’, ‘push button’ type products
  • Low quality products where getting a refund is not easy

3. ShareASale

ShareASale is an affiliate network that allows you to promote products from a wide range of merchants. With ShareASale, you can earn commissions of up to 35% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a large selection of merchants in a variety of niches, making it easy to find products that align with your own interests and audience.

Pros

  • Can earn money from new lead signups or sales
  • Multiple merchants and products
  • Customizable affiliate links

Cons

  • Payout threshold is high
  • Can’t use Paypal
  • Merchant programs can disappear without warning

4. CJ Affiliate

CJ Affiliate, formerly known as Commission Junction, is another popular affiliate network with a wide range of merchants and products. With CJ Affiliate, you can earn commissions of up to 8% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 60 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

Pros

  • Long cookie duration
  • Big brand names for you to promote
  • Plenty of support

Cons

  • Education is low quality

5. ClickBank

ClickBank is a popular affiliate network that offers products in a wide range of niches, including health and wellness, personal development, and more. With ClickBank, you can earn commissions of up to 75% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 60 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

Pros

  • Free to sign up
  • High affiliate commissions
  • Large range of niches and products

Cons

  • Very competitive
  • A lot of low quality products
  • Pay expensive fees if your account is dormant for too long
  • Education not as in-depth as other programs

You can even search for a brand that you love using, and in Google type ‘xyz affiliate scheme’. This will take you to the company’s affiliate page where you can sign up, and start promoting the product and earning commission when you make a sale.

Of course, not all brands will offer the marketing tools you need or even a reliable support team.


Are you set up for success?

In conclusion, I would say Modern Wealthy is a great resource for starting your online business journey, and is definitely not a scam.

It helps individuals to get started even if they don’t have their own product or prior online experience. They do this by providing the training, guidance, tools and support. Check out this behind the scenes video:

Behind the scenes of Modern Wealthy

However – I do feel that your success depends on you.

Not training or tactics, but your mindset. For example, how open minded are you? Are you willing to be patient? Are you willing to reach out for help and guidance? Do you get distracted by shiny, new things?

You can be successful with the Modern Wealthy program – but you have to work on your inner game first.

Are you set up to succeed?

Make no mistake. If you’re an aspiring affiliate marketer and want to make sales effectively – what determines how well your funnel does, is what you communicate and how well you communicate it.

I want to introduce you to this Free 4-Part Video Workshop on how to start and build your own successful affiliate business.

Even if you have no product of your own.

Even if you have no prior online business experience.

Even if you have no technical skills.

If you are serious about starting your online business, check it out this free Workshop:

Free Video Workshop Shows You How To Start An Affiliate Business From Scratch!

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profitable side business ideas for bankers

As a Banker, you understand money. You understand accounting, finance and investing. But when it comes to side hustles, are you truly familiar with the side business opportunities out there?

My name is Anand and I worked for various corporate and investment banks in my career during my near 20 year career. I worked in Trading, Risk and Consulting within Financial Services so I can understand where you’re coming from. I have various side hustles, ranging from real estate to online businesses.

Introduction

I get it – even though most Bankers are on high salaries, that usually means high living expenses such as:

  • Mortgage
  • School fees
  • Dependencies
  • Credit card and loans
  • Car payments
  • Insurance
  • Leisure and vacation

Also these days, banks are just not as reliable as most people think. Jobs are not secure, so it makes sense to look to create multiple sources of income.

I want to go through 9 profitable side business ideas for Bankers in 2023, give you the pros and cons and point you to the best resources on getting started.

For Bankers (and other people working long hours in the financial industry), any side business you’d want to start should need minimal ongoing input of your time and money.

Of course, there will be an initial set up time and cost, but you don’t really want to commit significant time during the day on that business – especially when you have your 8am to 8pm job!

This post is also useful for people who work in the financial industry in general.

1. Day Trading

These days, you can start open up a brokerage account with many companies like eToro and Plus500 and start using their trading platforms.

The platforms can be quite sophisticated and have more than enough tools for you to trade during the day. You can trade in stocks, FX, commodities or crypto – for as little as $10 initial capital. Most trading platforms are also regulated.

From my experience of trading, it’s so important to have your strategy (which should include risk management) and stick with it!

Also, with day trading – you are the one placing the trades, so you have to know your entries and exits. This requires planning and researching the markets prior to start of trading day.

It’s an option, but not if you’re already super busy working long hours.

PROSCONS
You understand marketsRequires a strict mindset
You understand price actionTime spent researching stocks and markets
Can set up with minimal capitalTime spent monitoring price activity and news
modern-wealthy

2. Algorithmic Trading

There are a growing number of companies that let you use their proprietary trading algorithm tools – for a fee/subscription. Auvoria Prime is one that I used in the past.  

With algorithmic trading or ‘copy-trading’, you deposit a certain amount (usually at least $5000) of trading capital and then let the ‘algo’ trade on your behalf. It places trades, manages and exits the trade (based on default strategy settings, or your own customization).

Ideally, look for a company with a long history of results with their strategy.

Also be wary of company’s that promise high daily returns or ‘guaranteed profit’, as algos are not perfect and losses (something large) can occur.

Algorithmic trading is great if you want a ‘hands-off’ way of earning money. Consider it passive income, but you really don’t want to commit large amounts of money until you’re confident with the results.

PROSCONS
Little involvement by youNot your ‘asset’
Can customize risk and return parametersNot all providers are reliable, and withdrawals may take longer
Algo can break down in times of market turmoil (large losses!)

3. Finance Blogging

If you have a lot to share, blogging or article writing is a great way.

Blogging is especially great if you like writing and your chosen subject requires a detailed explanation.

The great thing with blogging is anyone can do it, and it’s a low-cost option. These days you can set up a website quickly, easily and cheaply.

Also, you can become an authority in your subject matter. Perhaps it’s a niche subject or area of Finance that not many people know about. Consider this blog by ex-Banker Financial Samurai who has become known as a guru in personal finance.

Within your blog, you can even promote other related online products and services. This is known as affiliate marketing, and if the reader clicks on that product and makes a purchase – you get a commission.

PROSCONS
Subject matter expertRequires a lot of your time to research and draft the article (including optimizing for SEO)
Allows you to ‘plug’ other productsMay need to update the blog (at least annually) if statistics are involved
Your assetCan take time to rank on Google
Low cost (just have to pay domain hosting and web design package)
interest to earnings using online business

4. Online Course

Creating an online course is another side business idea for Bankers in 2023. If you have a specialism, and feel more people can benefit from this knowledge – then why not create an online course?

Courses are easy to create (see Kajabi) and if you can help people solve a problem, then your course stands to do well.

You may even find that your blog articles can be used as material for your course. The great thing about an online course is that you just have to build it once, market it, and make recurring income from course sales.

PROSCONS
Create a product based on your niche knowledgeSubscription cost to course platform provider
Your assetInitial time spent researching and producing the course
Create once
Allows for scaling

5. Online Consulting

While a course is a one-to-many solution, you may feel that one-to-one consulting suits your offer better.

Perhaps you can guide someone on how to achieve a certain result, for example helping college students get into Banking.

Or maybe consult someone on how to raise capital – if this is something you did in your Banking job.

PROSCONS
Provide one-to-one or group consulting services in your niche areaRequires commitment of your time
Clients willing to pay highly for your timeHard to scale

6. Investment Management

There are a lot of people with surplus cash interested in investing their money, but don’t have the right guidance or expertise. Or maybe they’ve been burnt in the past!

You can offer them advice on how best to invest their money to meet their needs. This might be for growth, capital preservation, regular income or to pay kid’s college fees in the future.

Just ensure that you have disclosed your side business to your employers. Giving investment advice can be considered as a conflict of interest to your employer’s clients.

PROSCONS
Put your insight and expertise to helping peopleRequires commitment of your time
Opportunity to be competitive and charge less fees than traditional investment managersMay have to obtain additional certifications to handle client assets
Potential conflict with work

7. Property Investment

Property investment models include rentals (buy-to-lets) and flipping (developing). However, the method you choose depends on your available capital, local market conditions and access to reliable contractors (in the case of flipping).

Investing in property is great in the long term, but for your first few deals it helps to have liquid cash to place a deposit.

Of course, you have to wary of costs like taxes, insurance, service charges and unexpected maintenance costs.

proscons
Real estate generally goes up long termRequires large capital outlay
Physical assetHave to budget for taxes, service charges, maintenance expenses
Can leverage equity to acquire more propertiesConsider appropriate strategy based on market cycle

8. E-Commerce

An increasing number of physical products are bought online. Amazon is the largest marketplace seller in the world, bringing in more than $600bn of sales in 2022.

If you have a product idea that you want to develop and sell online, then Amazon is your best bet.

The great thing with e-commerce is that you can customize a product to your preference and with your brand logo. Of course, a lot of market research will need to be done as with any product to determine demand, price, and competition. But the ability to scale is superb with Amazon.  

PROSCONS
Amazon has a huge share in e-commerce marketTime researching a product
Range of products to customize and sell on a trusted platform.May have to commit to a minimum order quantity (‘MOQ’) with the supplier when testing a product
Can scale easilyMargins have become increasingly tight
Certain niches are very competitive
hyper-profitable-online-business

9. Affiliate Marketing

If you’re looking for a business model where you have a ready-made product, logistics and operations already in place – then affiliate marketing is perfect.

You essentially act as ‘affiliate’ for a company, promoted and selling their products. For every sale made of that product (via your unique affiliate link), you receive a commission. In some cases, commission can be up to 90% of the sale price.

You can market products through your own website, your social media, email list or just through word of mouth.

If someone is looking to start a business online around their day-job, then I would always recommend affiliate marketing. Most companies and brands offer an affiliate program for their products, and joining their affiliate program is generally free too.

PROSCONS
You act as the middle manLittle control over pricing, features and customer experience
No need to worry about fulfilment, customer service, etc
Margins are attractive
Can scale easily

Conclusion

In this post, I shared with you 9 profitable side business ideas for Bankers. Considering you have little time during the day to set up a business and run it, I listed those ideas I felt were best suited to you.

In conclusion, I’d say affiliate marketing is a great model to get up and running very quickly and requires minimal supervision.

It is considered a ‘hands-off’ business model, and once your metrics are positive – then the business can be scaled.

If you’re looking for detailed guidance on how to start and run an affiliate marketing business, including how to best promote a product – then check out this free workshop below:

What is affiliate marketing?

As an ex-corporate employee who quit his job after using Affiliate Marketing, it just makes sense that more people – especially beginners learn exactly what is Affiliate Marketing and how does it work.

I want to explain to you what exactly is affiliate marketing and how it works.

I firmly believe that affiliate marketing is a great online business model if you’re working in a full time job and have other priorities such as family. Once you get an affiliate business up and running – it is very much hands-off.

Many people have asked me recently how the process of affiliate marketing works, and how to get set up and start making sales online. I’m going to explain everything you need, specifically:

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What Is Affiliate Marketing and How Does It Work?

What is affiliate marketing and how does it work? Well, it’s very simple.

Affiliate marketing is where you promote and sell other company’s products to earn a commission.

You basically partner with brands and promote their products to your audience, earning a commission on sales made through your unique referral link. Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn an income around your job – especially if you don’t have your own product or service!

You simply leverage an existing company’s products and go out and market that product. The company may even provide the marketing assets for you. On top of that, the company will deal with customer enquiries, refunds, fulfilment, etc, so you don’t have to! So essentially, it’s a ready-made business which you have to market.

I am currently an affiliate marketer for four brands, and it was my first online business model in 2019 while working in my 9-to-5 corporate job.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, you really want to market a product you have used before and would happily recommend it to others. If you want help getting started with your own affiliate business – check out the same training that I used as a beginner. It’s still hands-down one of the best affiliate training programs out there.

Here are the basic steps to become an affiliate for a brand:

Step 1 – Find a product, service or brand you use. Simply type in Google a product/brand followed by “affiliate program”. Check out the example below:

What is affiliate marketing and how does it work?

Step 2 – If that brand has an affiliate program, you will see the search result for it’s affiliate page:

Become a Mindvalley Affiliate

Step 3 – Sign up for free:

Apply now for affiliate program
Sign up for affiliate program

Step 4 – Start sharing your unique affiliate link with your friends, family, social media followers, email list, etc. If someone clicks on the link and purchases the product, then you receive a % of the sale price.

Not all brands will have an affiliate program. Some brands may also name their program differently, i.e. ‘associate program’ or ‘members’.

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

I firmly believe that affiliate marketing is the best online business model for beginners. It was for me in 2019 when I didn’t have my own product, service or offering!

Here are the benefits of affiliate marketing:

+ Low risk

There’s no huge capital outlay required. Your only sizeable expense will be paid advertising if you choose to go down that route. It’s great for beginners, especially those in full time jobs – who initially want to use affiliate marketing to build a side income around their jobs.

+ Scalable

Considering the size of your audience size for your particular niche, scaling is very possible with affiliate marketing. Depending on your income per product sold, you can go from 3 figures/month to over 5 months/month.

+ Focus on marketing

You only have to focus on marketing to new customers, with fulfilment, returns and customer complaints handled by the company.

+ No holding of stock

If you’re an affiliate marketer for a physical product, you don’t need to hold stock. This is done by the company who will deliver the product to the customer directly.

+ Time leverage

By utilizing available online platforms, you can earn income from sales 24/7. The tools and platforms available online mean that you don’t have to be there to oversee a sale. It can all be done on auto-pilot. For this reason, affiliate marketing is an example of a ‘leveraged’ strategy because the model frees up your time to focus on other things or live your life!

That means earning income in your sleep! If you’ve set up a winning funnel, sometimes there is very little input required by yourself. Compare this to traditional ‘9-to’5’ jobs where you have to commit x time to earn y salary.

+ Multiple affiliate businesses

You can be an affiliate for multiple products within the same company you are an affiliate for. That’s because you can refer your existing customers to other, more expensive products within the company.

The advantage of starting an affiliate business is that you learn how to market a product. So once you market one product successfully, you can then go on to build affiliate income from other products!

+ Uncapped earning potential

Some companies offer commissions of up to 80% of the sale price to the affiliate. This means that if you can get your costs right, then you stand to do well. Remember, if you use paid advertising to find your customers – then you need to ensure that:

$ Return per customer > $ cost per customer acquisition

Challenges of Affiliate Marketing

While it appears to be a straight-forward model, you need to consider the following when getting started with affiliate marketing:

Patience

Depending on your affiliate funnel, it can take some time to see results. You might hit the mark quickly, or maybe split-testing is required to see which landing page, lead magnet, headline, etc, makes a difference and starts to attract clicks and sales.

Lack of control

As an affiliate, you are a ‘sales-man’. That means that you won’t have control over the quality of the product, the customer service team, the nurturing process, the company assets, etc. There is a chance the company can change the offer or pricing with little notice and it might affect your whole business.

It does help to be an affiliate for a brand/product for which you’re familiar with and have had a great customer experience with.

affiliate marketing training for beginners

Affiliate Marketing vs Other Strategies

Online business is my hands-down preferred strategy for building extra income. But here are other strategies I pursued and their pros and cons:

Property investment:

+ actual physical asset

+ property appreciates over the long term

– requires significant capital outlay

– extra costs, i.e. service charges, taxes, repairs, etc

Stock/fund investment:

+ more investment platforms = reduced transaction costs

+ allows you to benefit from company earnings via dividends

– requires research

– long time horizon

– subject to economic cycles

Day trading:

+ you can set your risk/return preferences in your strategy

+ can start with little money

+ unlimited earning potential

– need a strong mindset to not chase losses

– you’re on your own

– guaranteed failure if you don’t have a plan/or don’t stick to one

E-commerce:

+ physical product

+ can market and sell on a huge platform like Amazon

+ Don’t have to hold stock

– upfront cost to find in-demand product and test the market

– competitive

Freelancing:

+ allows you to market your unique skill-set online

-requires a commitment of your time

-capped income

Franchise business:

+ real physical assets

+ ready made brand

-huge upfront and regular expenses

Costs of Affiliate Marketing

Below I have listed the minimum you need to get your affiliate marketing business off the ground.

Website builder + domain hosting

There are lots of website builders and domain hosters out there! Some are adequate, while others have additional features like 24/7 support, tools, etc. Convertri is my favorite website builder because it is great for affiliate marketers! The best things about Convertri is that it is so simple to use. You can just drag and drop elements to design your webpage as you please. Also Convertri webpages load super quick! This is so important for SEO or for paid ads, as users want fast page speeds. Google recognizes fast page speeds for SEO ranking.

Monthly subscriptions will start at $75/month.

Email autoresponder

An email autoresponder allows you to send an email or newsletter to multiple people at one time. If you have built up a list of follows or subscribers, then you would want to stay engaged with them. This might be by sending regular emails on your product, or providing tips relating to the product area, useful content, offering downloads, etc. The key with email marketing is to continue to provide valuable content to generate trust from your customers. Eventually they’ll become paying customers.

In fact, email marketing provides one of – if not, the best return on marketing spend compared to other ad types.

AWeber or Mailchimp as reputable email autoresponders. AWeber offers a free starting package, but as your subscribers increase, they start to charge. Their paid packages start at $12.50/month.

Graphics and content design package

Canva is an excellent graphics and design website. It is so user-friendly and allows you to create content for a whole range of platforms – and in a range of formats. They have a huge collection of professional looking templates and is my go-to place for design new graphics.

Canva offers a free package, but the paid package gives you access to more templates and graphics – starts at $10.99/month.

Paid traffic (optional)

If you use paid advertising (i.e. Google, Facebook ads) to attract customers, then you will probably need to spend at least $5/day for the algorithm to work properly and start bringing you customers. Note, this is an optional cost.

Affiliate Platforms

As an affiliate marketer, one of the most important factors to consider when choosing a program is the commission rate. After all, the higher the rate, the more money you stand to make from each sale. In this post, we will take a look at some of the best paying affiliate schemes currently available.

1. Amazon Associates

Amazon is one of the biggest and most well-known e-commerce companies in the world, and their affiliate program, Amazon Associates, is just as popular. With Amazon Associates, you can earn up to 10% in commissions on eligible products that you promote. One of the great things about Amazon Associates is the wide range of products available, including books, electronics, clothing, and more. Plus, their cookie duration is 90 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

2. ShareASale

ShareASale is an affiliate network that allows you to promote products from a wide range of merchants. With ShareASale, you can earn commissions of up to 35% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a large selection of merchants in a variety of niches, making it easy to find products that align with your own interests and audience.

3. CJ Affiliate

CJ Affiliate, formerly known as Commission Junction, is another popular affiliate network with a wide range of merchants and products. With CJ Affiliate, you can earn commissions of up to 8% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 60 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

4. FlexOffers

FlexOffers is another affiliate network that offers a wide range of products and merchants. With FlexOffers, you can earn commissions of up to 50% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 30 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

5. ClickBank

ClickBank is a popular affiliate network that offers products in a wide range of niches, including health and wellness, personal development, and more. With ClickBank, you can earn commissions of up to 75% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 60 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

There are many great affiliate programs out there that offer high commission rates. By choosing one of the programs listed above, you can maximize your earning potential as an affiliate marketer. Just be sure to do your research and choose a program that aligns with your own interests and audience.

You can even search for a brand that you love using, and in Google type ‘xyz affiliate scheme’. This will take you to the company’s affiliate page where you can sign up, and start promoting the product and earning commission when you make a sale.

Choosing An Affiliate Product or Offer

Here are some guidelines when choosing an affiliate product or offer.

1. It should be a product you like or have used yourself. If you don’t like it, you won’t promote it with any passion. People will see right through you.

2. It’s got to be useful for your customer. Don’t just promote something for your own gain. Promote something that will really help people. All businesses are started to solve problems and yours should too.

3. I found the best niches for launching an online business, especially an affiliate marketing business are:

  • Health
  • Wealth
  • Self
  • Social

If you can find a product that falls within one of the above niche areas, then that’s a great start. For example, diet products fall under ‘Health’ and are always in demand. Similarly for money making strategies – which fall under ‘Wealth’.

But…you don’t want to be too generic with your sub-niche, as there may be a lot of competition. For example, weight loss pills are everywhere on the internet. It may not be easy to stand out. Check out this article on how to use Google Trends to find your sub-niche:

4. To get real success you ideally want your business to have monthly recurring income. In other words, each month the customer pays for the product subscription – you get a commission. So by earning a monthly revenue, you have created a passive income for yourself.

5. Once you have customers you want them to love your product, rave about it and keep buying other related product from you. So make sure the product has other products to compliment it, or even up-sells, i.e. a premium package. This is a great way to increase your revenue from the same customer. In other words – your revenue per customer increases. 

Points 1 and 2 are non-negotiable.

If you’re looking for guidance on how to properly start an affiliate business, then I would highly recommend the Modern Wealthy training below.

Online business training

Marketing The Product or Offer

Free (organic strategies) vs Paid advertising?

Once you’ve decided on a product or offer, you then need to work out how to market it to an audience. Ask yourself, do you have time or money? If you have more time, then maybe you can go down the route of content creation. This is where you create content regularly and post on your social media (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc) or broadcast to an existing audience by email.

The content you post will be related to the product, and includes tips, news, quotes, free products, etc. By creating content regularly, the idea is to create followers. Once you have sizeable followers, then you can actively start to market your affiliate product – and hopefully make sales.

Blogging

If you like to write, then why not consider blogging. Blogging is free and you can write to your heart’s content. The key with using blogging for affiliate offers – is to ensure your blog is relevant and addresses a key pain point of the reader. Only then can you bridge the reader to your offer.

There are many blogs about a variety of topics, so the internet is pretty saturated already with blogs. But that shouldn’t stop you from writing an article about something you’ve learnt, or presenting some compelling research or stats relating to your affiliate product.

I have used my blogs and then sliced and diced them to post on my socials. That includes email broadcasts, Instagram, Facebook etc. Reformat and reposting is a great way to ensure you are utilizing all of the platforms.

Note that blogging and the other content creation strategies above require you to play the long game and build an audience.

Paid advertising is where you are paying for targeted traffic. You can advertise your offer on Google search, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. Of course – this strategy has the potential to provide you with laser focussed traffic who are interested in what you are offering. Be warned though – that if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can waste a lot of money on paid ads!

Here are some of the paid advertising platforms:

Google search –

Google is the world’s go-to search engine, and has billions of searches every day. You can’t afford NOT TO be on Google!

It is all about search intent. Someone will use Google because they need to learn about a topic, or need a solution or help to fix something. Considering the number of advertisers – Google ads are very competitive, but if you can produce an ad and content that directly addresses the pain or problem that someone is searching – then your affiliate offer will do well.

YouTube –

YouTube is owned by Google, and so it uses the same paid advertising platform as Google Search – ‘Google Ads’. YouTube advertising is powerful because you can connect with a viewer on an emotional level. Something that is hard to do with plain text. If you can create a compelling video ad that hooks the viewer, addresses their pain problems and presents a solution – then you’re onto a winner.

YouTube video ads generally appear before the main video that the viewer is watching. You have 5 seconds at the beginning before the viewer can click on ‘Skip’ and continue with their main video. In those 5 seconds, that’s when you ‘hook’ your viewer in.

I started my first affiliate business by marketing on YouTube and it was amazing. I was able to portray my message with emotion, logic and results. Video is powerful and I would always recommend marketing on YouTube with the right guidance.

Facebook –

Facebook is a super mature platform, with a very sophisticated algorithm behind it’s advertising. That means that Facebook is so incredibly clever at finding the right people for your offer – providing a) your ad is highly focussed, and b) you apply the appropriate targeting for your ad.

If you can create a Facebook ad funnel that is generating leads and sales from your affiliate product, you stand to do very well. Just note that when it comes to scaling your ad – YouTube is much better to get to 5 and 6-figures a month. That is because YouTube typically is better for marketing high ticket products (>$300). Where Facebook does well for those advertisers who are marketing products that are priced at <$300.

These days you will note that there are so many adverts online shouting out “How you can make $000s a day” or “Change your life in a week”.

But it’s pretty much impossible for a beginner in affiliate marketing to do it this quick.

Here’s why

When getting started with affiliate marketing you want to promote 1 product only. Focussing all your attention on getting it to work and produce nice healthy profits. Only at that point should you start to promote and sell a 2nd, 3rd, 4th product etc.

Alot of people make the mistake early on with trying to do 10 things at once.

Focus on 1 product, learn the process and then you can repeat later on.

This is a journey, not a sprint.

Below are the steps you should now take:

What’s next?

1. Google the company you want to promote (example Amazon affiliate program, Manscape affiliate program, Booking.com affiliate program, MindValley affiliate program, etc). You’ll see if you can promote their products or not.

2. Sign up for the free affiliate program, and you’ll receive an affiliate link from them.

3. Build a basic website/landing page around your niche or product you are promoting (once you’ve learnt how to build websites you can do this in a few hours). Today’s technology makes website building so quick and straight forward. 

4. Advertise via free strategies such as blogging, YouTube channel, Instagram or Facebook. Or go down the route of paid advertising such as Bing, Google Search Ads, YouTube ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads or banner ads. 

5. Add value to your customers and show how the product can help them solve their pain or problem.

6. Customer clicks and buys, and you make an affiliate commission.

Note there are various ways from point 4. to generate sales, but the above are the most common. 

As you can see it requires a bit of work and learning to get to this stage.

It’s not possible for a beginner to make money in a week with all of this. Chances are it will take a month or maybe 2 or 3 months. Maybe even longer to really learn the skills that are needed to succeed in affiliate marketing.

But the next few months are going to pass regardless so you may aswell get started. And once you set up a successful funnel, it will run virtually automatically, generating sales 24/7 – while you are sleeping, travelling or eating. 

Don’t believe me? Google it now. Type in companies and take a look at the commissions they offer. Some commissions range from hundreds of dollars to thousands per sale. How many $2000 commissions do you want to make a month?

Best Affiliate Marketing Strategy

Imagine a subscription-based product priced at $100 monthly that pays you $25 per month each time the customer pays the $100 (btw – thousands of products offer a subscription-based affiliate model. I’ve picked a mid-range.).

Normally digital products, memberships, software, courses and training products offer these types of recurring commissions. 

Let’s say your aim is to make 10 sales a month (you can advertise to a global audience):

Month 1 – You’ll be earning the sales commission only, no recurring commission

Month 2 – You’ll be earning $250 in recurring commission + new sales you make

Month 3 – You’ll be earning $500 in recurring commission + new sales you make

Now imagine you can make 20 sales a month – over the course of a year.

As mentioned above, you don’t need to have a following to do this. Advertising can get you in front of buying customers within hours of launching an advert. 

There is no reason why within a few months you can’t be set up with you affiliate funnel and making your first sale online. From that point on you just scale your advertising budget, reach more people and make more sales. 

The process is very simple. It’s just about learning the skills that is vital for all of this to work.

High ticket affiliate marketing strategy

You can be an affiliate for Amazon for example. That means you don’t have to own a specific product. You simply promote a particular product and if someone clicks on that specific link, it takes them to Amazon where they can buy it.

What is affiliate marketing and how does it work?

Now Amazon pays it affiliates around 5-10% commission. Let’s say that an average Amazon product is $30. So if you were to promote and sell a $30 product as an affiliate – you’d make around $3.

That’s not ground-breaking.

You’d have to sell ALOT of those products to make it a worthwhile business.

If you wanted to earn $1000 a month as an affiliate – you’d have to sell over 300 of those products.

amazon affiliate strategy

My strategy?

I sell products that are priced higher, i.e in the hundreds and thousands of dollars (not $30).

Also – i target those affiliate programs that pay a high affiliate commission %, i.e. 30%, 40%, 50% and more.

Yes those programs do exist!

So I basically promote and sell high priced products that pay a high affiliate commission:

high ticket affiliate strategy

In the above example you can see that you can earn $200 if you sold a $400 product as an affiliate (assuming commission rate is 50%).

To hit a monthly income target of $1000, you’d only have to sell 5 of these such products:

high ticket affiliate strategy 2

And you’re income is not only restricted to the initial commission you get from a sale.

Some affiliate programs pay affiliates membership income, i.e. for each month the customer stays as a member – the affiliate receives a percentage of the monthly membership fee. 

This is known as ‘recurring income’.

Also, some brands and companies have up-sells, where the customers goes on to buy further products. Therefore, you as an affiliate can receive affiliate commission from future purchases/upgrades that that customer decides to make.

This is known as ‘high-ticket income’.

Bottom line – if you can find an affiliate scheme that pays all 3 types of income (initial, recurring and high ticket) – then you’re on your way to a six-figure passive income.

3 types of affiliate income

affiliate marketing training for beginners

Real Life Affiliate Marketing Examples

Example #1

Vikki Renz is the owner of YouTube channel – ‘Oh my Mama Body’, where she gives advise on women going through pregnancy.

As part of her channel description, she has an affiliate link to Lavender Oils that she uses and recommends (see below).

She also offers a 24% discount when a new user clicks on the link and sets up their account. If that person buys the oils, then Vikki stands to make a commission.

Example #2

Landria Onkka is a spiritual teacher and manifestation guru. On her website – https://landriaonkka.com/, she has a page on Healthy Choices. There she has different products that she has used and recommends.

The links take you to her Amazon shop where she utilizes Amazon affiliate links to sell other company’s products:

Amazon will then pay her a commission (5-10%) for every sale made.

Example #3

You know those review articles that compare products? Well, those are affiliate websites. They compare and rate products – and then give you an option to buy them via affiliate links:

Check out the listings for websites when I type in ‘best noise cancelling headphones’:

When I click on this link, it takes me to the TechRadar article – which has affiliate links for different headphones that they are comparing.

See below example for the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones:

Example #4

YouTuber David De Las Morenas has a channel called ‘How To Beast’. Here he posts videos on how to become your best self.

As a result of accumulating 1.3m subscribers, he is able to promote other products and services he uses. He does this by sharing the product’s affiliate link:

See below a sleeping mattress product URL link that David shares in his YouTube video description. You can see this product (Helix mattress) is relevant to the video content ‘My Morning Routine 2023’.

By adding the ‘/beast’, at the end of the URL, the company Helix Mattresses can then identify where sales have come from. If David’s audience clicking on that link and purchase a mattress, David receives commission from the sale.

My Journey As An Affiliate Marketer

When I started my affiliate marketing online business journey four years ago, I had doubts around what I could achieve. I had a desirable goal in mind, but wasn’t sure how realistic it was. I had these questions in my mind –

– Is it a scam?

– Can I really do it?

– What if give up and fail?

– What will my family think?

It took me a few months to go through the affiliate training and then I was ready to start marketing my affiliate products in July 2019. And I was so excited!

But the sales and income didn’t come quickly for me.

It took me a few months to really get my funnel nailed down, to get my marketing message pinpointed – AND more importantly to get my mindset corrected.

So it was in Sep’19 when I made my first few sales.

Below is a graph of my sales at that time.

While it might not be massive earnings, at the time it was very significant for me. It showed me that if I can make $100 online, I can $1000. And I can make $1000, I can make $10,000.

That’s the advantage of a leveraged business model.

With people I knew earning >$30k/month, I know that if I keep persisting, if I keep learning and tweaking my business, and more importantly – if i stay committed to the journey – the sky is the limit!

Conclusion

I hope my growth can inspire you as well.

Note – I’m not special in any way.

Trust me on this. I’m not a whizz when it comes to technical stuff. I’m not a natural born entrepreneur. And I’m not a natural sales-man.

But i was committed to changing my circumstances. I didn’t want to rely on a wage anymore.

So click here to get started with the same affiliate marketing business training that I took. It allowed me to learn digital marketing and earn at the same time by creating an affiliate marketing business.

The important thing is – how bad do you want to change your circumstances? How badly do you wish to create another income around your job.

Or how much do you want to quit your job and live a freedom lifestyle?

Take the first step today.

Free Video Workshop Shows You How To Start An Affiliate Business From Scratch!

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About me

I’m sure you hear it alot, but what is a home-run business? And as a corporate employee, why should you start a home-run business? And how can you do it?

Basically a home-run business means choosing your own working hours and working on projects of your choosing.

  • Starting a home-run business can be a great way for corporate employees to take control of their career and financial future. Here are a few reasons why:
  • Financial independence: Starting a business allows you to be in control of your own income, rather than relying on a salary from an employer. This can lead to a greater sense of financial security and freedom.
  • Career satisfaction: Many corporate employees feel stuck in their current roles and may not see opportunities for advancement. Starting a business allows you to pursue your passions and interests, and can lead to a greater sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in your work.
  • Flexibility: A home-run business allows you to set your own schedule and work from the comfort of your own home. This can be especially beneficial for those with family or other responsibilities that make it difficult to commit to a traditional 9-to-5 schedule.
  • Innovation: As a business owner, you have the freedom to innovate and create new products or services. This can be especially rewarding for those who feel stifled by corporate bureaucracy and lack of autonomy.
  • Low startup costs: Starting a home-run business can be relatively inexpensive, especially compared to opening a brick-and-mortar store or office. This can make it a great option for those who want to start their own business but don’t have a lot of capital to invest.

This is unlike employment or your job where you have to work fixed hours and are doing work given to you – like it or not. 

You can work for yourself through the following ways;

  1. Freelancing – where you sell your skills and provide a ‘tangible’ outcome.
  2. Coaching – where you share knowledge or experiences in how to achieve a goal.
  3. Ecommerce – where you sell physical products online on Amazon or eBay for example.
  4. Affiliate marketing – where you sell other company’s products online as a referrer and earn a commission. Perfect for you if you don’t have your own product at this stage.

I firmly believe you should work for yourself for the following reasons;

#1 – High costs of living

With cost of goods and services rapidly increasing, we’re seeing that wages are not going up by the same rate unfortunately. It therefore makes it harder and harder to afford your current lifestyle – unless you have additional sources of income. This is why having your own business can provide a level of security that your job can’t. 

#2 – Uncapped income

Linked to the above, it’s so important to create multiple sources of income to secure your financial future. The best thing about starting an online business is that you can leverage existing systems and platforms, and scale up your income. That means the amount you can earn online is really up to you. £1000 a month, £10,000, £100,000 a month? There’s no limit.

#3 – Choose when you work

Sometimes life just takes priority. And this means that your work needs to take a back-step. This is why having your own business allows you to set your own hours – without having to explain to a boss or employer!

#4 – Leave a legacy

What do you want to leave for your kids or future generations? This might be skills, money or maybe you want to be known for something. I believe that you should teach your kids to become financially independent and pursue entrepreneurship where they can. Of course, being in a job is NOT a bad thing. It’s a noble pursuit. But – if you value freedom and independence, then owning a business is the best choice for you and your family.

The one thing that helped me launch my online businesses was the principle of ‘Authority Marketing’.

What is Authority Marketing?

Authority Marketing is a cutting-edge strategy enabling you to join the modern wealthy and make more money in less time, buy working smarter – not harder. It ends with you working for yourself, and not for anyone else. You can start a home-based business using the principle of authority marketing.

It’s about embracing today’s digital world by leveraging the power of online marketing systems to automate selling any product or service to any target audience anywhere in the world.

Basically…

Step 1 – Identify Profitable Niche

Step 2 – Pinpoint your Audience

Step 3 – Understand what they want

Step 4 – Create your Brand & Message

Step 5 – Launch Marketing System

Step 6 – Promote Offer and make money

Authority Marketing enables you to generate leads and sales online, 24/7, 365 days a year without ever having to chase or convince anyone – or spend your time posting all day on social media.

It even works when you’re not!

Expert affiliate marketing training for beginners

The Benefits of an Authority Marketing System?

  • Work from anywhere
  • Work when you choose
  • Answer to nobody
  • Total time freedom
  • Earn uncapped income

So, time to join the Modern Wealthy. Click here now to learn more about Authority Marketing and how it help you make the transition from frustrated employee to a more present-living Online Entrepreneur, EVEN if you don’t have your own product or niche idea at this stage.

Overall, starting a home-run business can be a great way for corporate employees to gain control of their career and financial future. It offers many benefits, such as financial independence, career satisfaction, flexibility, and the opportunity to innovate. However, it’s important to be aware of the risks and challenges involved and to make an informed decision before taking the leap.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine Sean. And he said he was interested in starting his own online business – but the biggest thing holding him back was being so busy and lacking time.

Sean needed a way out of the corporate job but couldn’t find the time to start something online.

He is probably right in that his work, family, commute and other commitments take up most of his time in the week, and little time he has left is to unwind and relax.

But then I asked him – why did he really want to build an online business? He said the main reason was so he could finally leave his corporate job and create more time for himself and his family.

Fair enough. Sean’s ‘why’ for starting an online business was clear in his mind.

Then I told him it was exactly the same for me. I really wanted to start an online business but felt that I didn’t have time to go through the steps of building an online business. But the ironic thing is that – in order to achieve the dream of ‘time freedom’, we have to commit time now to the process.

If I can carve out 1 hour each evening to build my online business – I will be 1 step closer to my dream

What this means is – you have to sacrifice certain things in your day in order to build your business. You have to take the first step and say ‘ok i know I have limited time, but if I can carve out 1 hour each evening’ to build my online business – I will one step closer to my dream. (Not sure how – check out this article),

This is what I did when I started my online business training in February 2019. My thinking was – I really want to change my circumstances, and become a free man. In order to do this I’ll work every evening 9.30-11pm once I’ve done everything i need to do at home.

No TV.

It is a sacrifice, yes. But remember – nothing worthwhile comes easy.

So what I said to Sean was if you really, really want to change your life – then naturally you will do whatever is required to make it happen.

I then showed him the same online business training that I went through and just asked him to;

  1. Commit a time slot to his education and implementation of the skills learnt every evening, and;
  2. Follow the process taught – step by step.
  3. Reach out to me or the community if you are stuck (it happens).

So – if you find that a lack of time is holding you back from building a business, ask yourself how bad do you really want a business?

For me it was a no-brainer. Find time and commit to it 🙂

Expert affiliate marketing training for beginners
start a side hustle alongside your corporate job

Creating an online income alongside your corporate job can be a great way to build financial security, gain skills, and achieve a better work-life balance. With the rise of the gig economy and the increasing number of remote work opportunities, it’s now easier than ever to create an additional source of income. That’s without considering the increased cost of living that we all face!

However, it’s important to remember that creating an online income takes time, effort, and dedication. Here are some strategies that can help you build a sustainable online business while working your corporate job.

  1. Freelancing: Offer your skills, such as writing, graphic design, or programming, as a freelancer on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer. To be honest, these days you don’t even need to have your own skills. With the advance of AI (artificial technology), there are now more tools than ever that allow you to do things like; website creation, content creation, translating a language, copywriting, video editing, etc. It’s more more easy than ever and you can do these things at low cost. ChatGPT is great (and free) example of a hot AI tool that allows you to create content or get advise by simply requesting it! You advertise your services on freelancer platforms like Fiverr, and get the AI tools to do the hard work 🙂
  2. Online tutoring or teaching: Share your knowledge and expertise in a particular subject through online tutoring or teaching on platforms like VIPKid or iTalki.
  3. Selling products online: Start an online store and sell products on platforms like Amazon, Etsy, or Shopify.
  4. Affiliate marketing: Partner with brands and promote their products to your audience, earning a commission on sales made through your unique referral link. Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn an income around your job – especially if you don’t have your own product or service. You simply leverage an existing company’s products and go out and market that product. The company may even provide the marketing assets for you. On top of that, the company will deal with customer enquiries, refunds, fulfilment, etc, so you don’t have to! I am currently an affiliate marketer for four brands and it was my first online business while working in my 9-to-5 corporate job. When it comes to affiliate marketing, you really want to market a product you have used before and would happily recommend it to others. If you want help getting started with your own affiliate business – check out the same training that I used as a beginner.
  5. Dropshipping: Start a dropshipping business by selling products through an online store without having to hold inventory. Again, another fantastic online income source that leverages internet platforms like Amazon and its millions of customers. Before spending thousands on committing to a product – you should follow guidance on how to effectively build your ecommerce drop-shipping business.
  6. Blogging or content creation: Build an audience and monetize your blog or YouTube channel through advertising, sponsored content, or affiliate marketing. Again, ChatGPT can really help with this! But while ChatGPT (and other AI tools) can give you a start – you should definitely tailor the content to make it your own style.
  7. Podcasting: Start a podcast and monetize it through advertising, sponsorships, or affiliate marketing.
  8. Investing in stocks or cryptocurrencies: Invest your money into stocks or cryptocurrencies and earn returns through the appreciation of the value of your investments.
  9. Online surveys: Participate in online surveys and earn money for your opinions.
  10. Automated trading: This is a great strategy if you’re looking for passive income, i.e. invest once and earn returns daily/weekly. Automated trading or ‘trading bots’ will trade the markets for you automatically using a set strategy or settings that might tweak slightly. There are many in the market, but I use this one to earn me consistent daily positive returns, with a minimal investments.

By taking the time to get clear on your goals, identifying your skills and interests, creating a strategy, setting up a schedule, taking advantage of technology, outsourcing certain tasks, being consistent with your efforts, and learning from others, you can create an online income alongside your corporate job. Keep in mind that it will take time, effort, and dedication to make it happen, but the rewards can be well worth it.

Remember to also be mindful and keep the work-life balance healthy, the idea is not to burn out or neglect important aspects of your life, start small and grow gradually, review and adjust your strategies as you go and always be open to learn and evolve.

start a profitable online business today.
How ChatGPT can help to launch and grow an online business,

Have you heard of ChatGPT? 

It’s a form of AI (Artificial Intelligence) that can do alot for you – especially if you want to start an online business. ChatGPT reached over 1m new subscribers in just a week!

Starting and building an online business can be a complex and daunting task, but ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help you every step of the way. 

Best of all, its a free service! Check it out here.

Here are 12 ways you can use ChatGPT to get your online business off the ground:

  1. Brainstorm and generate ideas for products or services to sell online. ChatGPT can help you come up with unique and interesting concepts for your business by asking it open-ended questions and letting it generate suggestions.
  2. Research your target market and competitors. ChatGPT can help you gather information about specific industries, products, and competitors so you can understand the landscape and identify opportunities for your business.
  3. Refine and develop your product ideas. ChatGPT can help you brainstorm product features, pricing, packaging, and more by asking it questions and getting its feedback.
  4. Create marketing and advertising campaigns. ChatGPT can help you come up with ideas for promoting your business and reaching your target audience by asking it questions about your branding, marketing channels, and target audience.
  5. Create your website or landing page! You simply have to tell ChatGPT the detail, i.e. what type of website you want, and what you want it to achieve – and voila!
  6. Develop content for your website or social media channels. ChatGPT can assist with crafting engaging and informative content for your online presence, including blog posts, product descriptions, and social media posts.
  7. Headline suggestions. Ask ChatGPT to provide headline or blog title suggestions, and it will come up with eye-catching headlines and copy for your websites and landing pages.
  8. Create email marketing campaigns. ChatGPT can help you draft email marketing campaigns that are tailored to your target audience and designed to drive conversions.
  9. Craft customer service responses. ChatGPT can help you draft responses to common customer inquiries, such as shipping and return policies, so you can focus on more important tasks.
  10. Research and analyze trends in your industry. ChatGPT can help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in your industry by asking it questions about specific topics and getting its insights.
  11. Identify potential partners or suppliers. ChatGPT can assist with identifying potential partners or suppliers for your business by asking it questions about specific industries or products.
  12. Develop a business plan. ChatGPT can help you outline your business goals, target market, marketing strategy, and more by asking it questions about your business and getting its feedback
chatgpt

Overall, ChatGPT is a versatile tool that can help you with a variety of tasks as you start and build your online business. 

Best of all, you simply have to type in the command box what you want it to do. The way you write your request is as if you are asking a friend.

For example:

Provide blog title suggestions for best ways to clean dogs... or

What is the html code for a basic landing page for a fitness niche, so subscribers can sign up to a free fitness newsletter.

With its ability to generate ideas, research markets, and assist with product development, marketing, and customer service, ChatGPT can be an invaluable asset as you navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship. Of course, ChatGPT is the starting point, and you will need to then customize its output to suit your project or business.

If you’re looking for expert guidance on how to properly start an online business, then I would highly recommend the Modern Wealthy training below.

It’s the same training I took 2 years ago!

Expert affiliate marketing training for beginners
Looking for another source of income?
best paying affiliate marketing schemes for beginners
money and time - paying off your mortgage earlier
Don’t wait around…start earning passively this year

An affiliate business is where you promote other company’s products to earn an income. This post talks about the best paid affiliate schemes in 2023.

As an affiliate marketer, one of the most important factors to consider when choosing a program is the commission rate. After all, the higher the rate, the more money you stand to make from each sale. In this post, we will take a look at some of the best paying affiliate schemes currently available.

1. Amazon Associates

Amazon is one of the biggest and most well-known e-commerce companies in the world, and their affiliate program, Amazon Associates, is just as popular. With Amazon Associates, you can earn up to 10% in commissions on eligible products that you promote. One of the great things about Amazon Associates is the wide range of products available, including books, electronics, clothing, and more. Plus, their cookie duration is 90 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

2. ShareASale

ShareASale is an affiliate network that allows you to promote products from a wide range of merchants. With ShareASale, you can earn commissions of up to 35% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a large selection of merchants in a variety of niches, making it easy to find products that align with your own interests and audience.

3. CJ Affiliate

CJ Affiliate, formerly known as Commission Junction, is another popular affiliate network with a wide range of merchants and products. With CJ Affiliate, you can earn commissions of up to 8% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 60 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

4. FlexOffers

FlexOffers is another affiliate network that offers a wide range of products and merchants. With FlexOffers, you can earn commissions of up to 50% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 30 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

5. ClickBank

ClickBank is a popular affiliate network that offers products in a wide range of niches, including health and wellness, personal development, and more. With ClickBank, you can earn commissions of up to 75% on sales made through your referral link. They also have a long cookie duration of 60 days, giving you plenty of time to earn commissions on referred sales.

There are many great affiliate programs out there that offer high commission rates. By choosing one of the programs listed above, you can maximize your earning potential as an affiliate marketer. Just be sure to do your research and choose a program that aligns with your own interests and audience.

You can even search for a brand that you love using, and in Google type ‘xyz affiliate scheme’. This will take you to the company’s affiliate page where you can sign up, and start promoting the product and earning commission when you make a sale.

If you’re looking for guidance on how to properly start an affiliate business, then I would highly recommend the Modern Wealthy training below.

Expert affiliate marketing training for beginners
When there’s an opportunity that;
 
– Runs on auto-pilot
– Needs no prior experience
– Is recession proof
– Helps you take your slice of onlne sales..
 
You can’t let it pass.
 
If you’re keen to get started and want to give yourself the best start for 2023, check out Modern Wealthy.
 

It’s worth preparing your portfolio in the event of an economic downturn. This article presents some of the options available to protect against a significant drop in the markets.

It’s been over 10 years since the last recession, and as business cycles tend to last between 8 to 10 years, many are wondering whether we’re due a slow down in the economy and a recession.

A recession is essentially a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Usually, key macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, investment spending, capacity utilization, household income, business profits, and inflation fall for at least 2 consecutive quarters.

A key financial market indicators is the 2-10yr Treasury note spread. This is difference in yield between the 2yr and 10yr Treasury notes, and indicates the general shape of the yield curve, i.e. positive (upward trending), negative (downward trend) or flat. When investors expect weaker growth, low inflation and easier Fed policy, the yield curve flattens or inverts.

See below graph of the 2-10yr spread, with the key recessionary periods (1980-82, 1990-92, 2000, 2008-09) highlighted. You can see that the spread is close to, or at zero just before the recession;

With the current spread at around 0.1% and the yield curves of most developing nations either flat or inverted, it makes sense to consider those assets available to investors as a ‘recession’ hedge;

Gold

Gold (and silver) has been a reliable medium for thousands of years because of its quality as financial insurance, a store of value, and its tangible nature.

Gold has long been known as a safe haven for investors in times of chaos in the general equity markets. The run to gold during recessionary periods (demand > supply) creates an uptick in the value of the commodity.

The most recent recession occurred between 2007 and 2009. It was a brutal and long economic downturn that was driven by the housing crisis and reverberated around the world. To give you an idea of how painful this period was for investors, the S&P 500 Index was down roughly 37% between December 1, 2007, and May 30, 2009!

But what happened to gold? The price of the yellow metal rose 24%! It wasn’t a straight rise — gold was down around 10% at one point — but it never fell as much as stocks. Overall gold held its value at a time when stocks just kept falling.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEMKT:GLD) or iShares Gold Trust (NYSEMKT:IAU) track the price of gold, and are probably the easiest and quickest way to get gold into your portfolio as you don’t have to worry about taking delivery of the metal.

Jewelry demand (makes up 50% of gold demand) is more resilient than you’d probably imagine. And with gold jewelry demand coming primarily from India and China, a U.S. recession won’t necessarily change the desire for jewelry in those countries. Gold jewelry is also a status symbol, and as these countries move up the socioeconomic ladder, demand for gold jewelry is likely to rise over time.

See below the annual returns for gold compared to the S&P 500 during the last recession. You can see that gold outperformed the US equity benchmark in this time;

Gold vs S&P (US equity) performance during 2008-10 recession.

Government bonds

The reason why bonds do well in bad times is that they’ve always been considered a risk-off or ‘safe’ asset. U.S. treasuries, and especially long-term government bonds, are thought of safe, solid investments as there is very little chance of default on those assets by the government. The U.S. is not likely to go bankrupt even during a recession.

During recessionary periods, Investors are risk-averse and tend to shy away from credit risk, such as corporate bonds (especially high-yield bonds) and asset-backed securities (i.e. mortgage-backed securities), since these investments have higher default rates than government securities.

Investors will therefore seek safety and invest into government bonds, say U.S. Treasury bonds. As a result, the prices of risky bonds go down as people sell and the price of Treasury bonds increases. See below a chart of 3 long-term government bonds (UK gilts, German Bund, US 10yr Treasury) compared to the S&P 500 during the last recession. Note that while the bonds provided positive returns in 2008 compared to the circa 37% downturn in equities, the volatility of the S&P 500 (helped by people piling into cheaper equities) resulted in higher returns in S&P 500 compared to the bonds in 2009 and 2010.

Of course, the introduction of the quantitative easing (printing money) programme and numerous rate cuts in the US, Eurozone and the UK after 2010 resulted in significant positive returns for those sovereign bond securities.

Consumer staples

Even in the worst of times, consumers still buy the same amounts of staple goods like toothpaste and toilet paper. Historically, consumer staples equities have held up best out of any sector during hard times.

When the S&P 500 plummeted 49% during the dot-com crash, consumer staples as a group were up 1.2%. Although they fell 29% from peak to trough during the financial crisis, they actually performed the best of any sector.

Another benefit consumer staples provide is their low volatility. Companies in the sector rarely experience sharp price declines. Because of this, they have had the fewest bear markets of any S&P sector.

Consumer staples perform well in downturns also because of their reputation as high-quality dividend stocks. If a company can pay out even in the worst of times, investors will buy it. In addition, many of the consumer staple companies paying dividends have actually increased their dividend payments year on year!

McKinsey found that earnings in this sector remained nearly steady in every recession dating back to 1980. Put simply, consumer staples are cycle-agnostic.

See below a chart from Gallard Research comparing the performance of the consumer staples subindex and S&P 500 during the last recession. While the subindex did lose value, it was less than half of the value lost by the S&P 500 during the period;

Cash

Risk-averse and unsophisticated investors will often stash their cash in money market funds when they get nervous about the markets. While these funds do provide a high degree of safety, they should only be used for short-term investment.

Moving a good portion of your portfolio to cash or a CD (certificate of deposit), you can still make around 2-3% (guaranteed) based on today’s risk-free rate. While it’s pretty modest, you’ve got to weigh a guaranteed return against the possibility of missing out on further gains or the possibility of losing money.

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Go short!

It’s very, very likely that if you’re anticipating a recession then the equity markets will undergo a large dip. If you’re willing to take a risk, why not go net short in the equity markets? As a retail investor, you can do this by investing in those ETFs that go up when the underlying equity market it tracks goes down. This is known as a leveraged Inverse/Short ETFs, and they seek to provide X times the opposite return of an index for a single day.

Of course, as they’re leveraged they carry larger than normal risk – so you have to know what you’re doing and have a stop in place! Click here for a list of leveraged short ETFs.

Conclusion

Recessions can be emotional times for investors and the general public. If you have an investment portfolio, ensure it is well diversified. The above asset classes are some ideas that can be implemented into your portfolio.

However, the best way to protect your income during a recession is to have a variety of income sources you can rely on (not just your employment or your investment portfolio). This is why I recommend starting an online business and generate a sustainable, passive income.

To learn more, click here.

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Colourful apartment buildings

There are a whole host of investments out there, each with unique risk, liquidity and feasibility characteristics. I firmly believe in diversifying your portfolio, but for this post I want to share why I’m a fan of property investment and think that it’s something everyone should and can invest in. Not forgetting its an actual physical asset you can touch and feel – here are my 6 reasons;

Steady income with tax deductible expenses

The rental income you get on property investment provides a source of steady, passive income. This is unlike equity investments where not all companies pay out a dividend. In addition, you have control over the property (i.e choice of tenants, renovation, structure) whereas with equities – you have a negligible, if any influence over the strategic, operational or financial decisions of the company!

Owning a rental property is like owning a business, in that pretty much all expenses related to running the property are deductible from the rental income – which lowers your tax bill. Of course, there is no escaping property taxes but you can be smart and optimize your tax deductible expenses….legally.

Tenant pays down your mortgage

Most people take out a loan secured on their rental property, i.e. a mortgage – in order to purchase the property. As part of the loan, there will be monthly payments – which will include a mixture of loan repayment and interest. To service these payments, you rent out the property to earn rental income, and essentially this income covers the monthly mortgage payment and (hopefully) leaves a surplus/profit every month.

So basically, your tenants are paying off your mortgage. As a result, your outstanding loan reduces and the interest on that loan becomes lower (due to a lower loan balance). In time, you may increase the rent due to either a buoyant rental market or through your additional work/renovations you carried on the property.

Through this combination of lower monthly loan repayments and higher rent, your profits and cashflow increases. Eventually you want to get to a position where your rent pays off the entire mortgage, and you no longer owe the bank. This takes time, but it can be sped up with lump sum down payments where possible. T

The aim should be to get the property free of debt – making it a low risk, high return strategy in the long-run.

Inflation hedge

Property prices like most markets are subject to economic cycles and the micro-economics of supply and demand. However if you are prepared to stay invested in property for the long haul, you will find that the real returns of property are positive, i.e. after adjusted for inflation effects – the rental and capital appreciation of a property exceed the inflation rate.

This is not the case for all equities or fixed income investments. For the last 40 years both the US and UK residential property market returns have exceeded the rate of inflation. This particularly is due to the progressive increase in property prices rather than rental yields. Of course, the returns vary within regions, and that’s where location becomes a huge factor in your property investment strategy.

Sail through those economic cycles

Consider these economic scenarios that illustrate that if held over the long term, your property investment is a safe bet:

  1. Low interest rate environment => Cheaper to borrow/refinance mortgage => more house purchases => house prices increase. GOOD FOR LANDLORDS
  2. Higher interest rate environment => More expensive to borrow => fewer house purchases => mortgage payments higher => people more inclined to rent. GOOD FOR LANDLORDS
  3. Supply of housing exceeds demand => House prices stagnate/reduce => more purchases due to lower prices => eventually pushes up house prices. GOOD FOR LANDLORDS.
  4. Demand for housing exceeding supply => Can be good for house prices, rent or both. GREAT FOR LANDLORDS!

Of course, the above is just a basic implication model, and there are other factors that can contribute to the housing market, i.e. regional housing micro-structure, global credit event (i.e. Credit Crunch of 2008-2010), rental ceilings, property taxes etc.

Ariel view of properties

Leverage!

A key feature of property investing is the ability to benefit from ‘leverage’.

For example, to buy a £200,000 property would cost you just £62,000 (assuming 25% mortgage, £5k refurb, and £2k legal costs) rather than the full £207,000.

If the property price then increased over two years to £250,000, upon selling the property you’d receive £100,000 (£250,000 – £150,000 outstanding mortgage), a phenomenal 61.2% return on cash invested, while also receiving rental income.

While this is true, the reverse also holds. If the property value declines from £200,000 the investor experiences negative equity and his/her loss on investment is also amplified due to leveraging (borrowing).

Of course, the recent stamp duty changes and tax laws introduced by the UK Government on buy-to-let property has significantly reduced cashflow for landlords. As a result, investors have become less incentivized to acquire further properties fulfilling the Government’s intentions. Despite this, there are still many property investment strategies available to investors, including;

  • ‘Flipping’ (developing and selling the property in the short term)
  • House in Multiple Occupation (HMO)
  • Short-term lets including Air-BnB
  • REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)
  • Crowdfunding (see below)

On a budget…try Crowdfunding

Owning properties is great, but with the higher deposit requirement for buy-to-lets or rental properties, it means you can have a lot of capital tied into one property…not forgetting the taxes and any refurbishment costs.

Real estate crowdfunding allows you to invest in real estate along with other investors, usually through a platform that will propose real estate deals and take care of all the work, like listing deals, doing all the legal work, and then managing the property. This allows you to invest as little as £1,000 into a residential or commercial real estate project for potentially 8 – 13% annual returns based off historical data.

This beats the return from £1000 in your savings account! With real estate crowdfunding investing, there’s also physical asset that’s backing your investment – similar to direct investing.

In addition, crowdfunding is great for people who want the hassle of tenants or renovations and essentially want a ‘hands off’ approach once the investment is made.

Essentially, it allows an investor to invest in a variety of property deals (residential, commercial, industrial) with a much lower capital injection. Click here for a list of recommended crowdfunding platforms.

What about the recession?

The last recession in 2008 onwards was driven by irresponsible lending to house buyers, complex credit products and greed. On top of that, the banks and lenders had rubbish capital buffers and so suffered wild losses – and had to be bailed out, severely affecting the markets, economy and consumer confidence. This time around there is more regulatory scrutiny over financial products, lending and bank capital adequacy. In other words, we are unlikely to see large corrections in house prices – although that’s not to say they won’t be affected.

Consumer confidence is hit in a recession and people are less likely to spend and invest, which reduces house prices. And the property investor needs to be prepared to ride these out – especially if s/he doesn’t have a need to sell. Note that a recessionary environment also provides opportunity to purchase assets at a discount!

I would always recommend investing in property for the above reasons. Refer to Global Property Guide for a useful source on property trends, statistics and news across the world. As mentioned at the top of this article, rental properties should form part of a diversified portfolio thus aiming to spread risk. Of course, all investments should be entered with a thorough due diligence.

Property investment is a great way to generate a passive income. Another way is through a profitable, online business. If you are keen to learn about setting up an online presence, developing unique digital marketing skills and generating an impressive income online, click here to get started!

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