Are you looking to spend more time with your family while building an online business? If yes, then this article is for you. Hi, my name is Francisco, and I am the owner of Planet Marketing, a digital marketing agency. My company specializes in Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Remarketing. I have been in business for over 2 decades and in that time, I have learnt all that there is to learn about building passive income. First off, I would like to say that I am not just writing this post for the sake of it. The information that I give here is based on my own experiences. In this article, I am going to;
- Show you why it’s important to build an online business
- Give you tips on building your own business
- Briefly show you how I did it
Why should you bother building an online business?
The COVID 19 pandemic has shown why it is so important for everybody to start building online businesses. It showed how vulnerable people really are. One month without going to work, and most people were already struggling!
Truth is, people out there do not have savings! They live from hand to mouth. And when disaster strikes, the result is chaos. However, that should never be the case!
If you are like the average person, you probably work like a slave to make ends meet. Yet you earn so little that it’s hardly enough to see you through to the end of the money. So, you are forced to work even more hours. The result is that you hardly have time to spend with your family.
An online business can be a good source of passive income
Building an online business is a good way through which to free yourself from that kind of life. You need to start earning enough to enable you to spend more time with your family. I was able to do it so you too can do it. You just need to think long term. And you need to get started now!
The trick lies in coming up with passive income sources. The tips that we give below are all centered around that. Passive income is money that you earn without having to put in full time work. And there is no better place for you to start doing it than online. Anyway, here is how to build your own online business;
Is it going to be easy
Most people imagine that it’s easy to build an online business so they can spend more time with their families. However, that is not actually the case. Believe me, to get there you need to work hard. Perhaps you are going to have to work even harder than you currently do. You are going to need to have lot’s and lot’s of sleepless nights.
However, if you do things right, the reward will be great at the end of the day. And you will do whatever you do knowing fully well that you are working for yourself and for your family, not to enrich somebody else. The really great thing is that once you have build up your passive income, you will be set for life.
How to build your own online business
So, how do you start building your own online business? Where do you even start? The good news is that you have several options when it comes to starting an online venture. We have already noted that the goal is to build passive income. I have previously written passive income tips for students, for single moms and for stay at home moms. The following are the available options for those looking to build an online business to earn passive income;
Build a Blog
If you carry out research, you will discover that creating a blog is often mentioned as one of the first steps if you are looking to build an online business. Personally, I have this blog; planetmarketing.com. The site serves as the center for all my online business activities. It’s what has allowed me to earn lots of passive income. So, having your own site is absolutely essential.
Yes, there are online businesses out there that you could probably embark on without having your own blog. But really, they are far and in between. In any case, your own site can serve as a platform on which to express yourself while earning something extra.
How to build a blog
To build a blog; you need to do the following;
- Decide what you are going to focus on. A blog can be about anything. Mine focuses on Digital Marketing. There are sites that focus on tech issues, news, sports, home improvement and much more. In fact, there is no end to the topics that you can focus on. However, it pays to have a particular focus because it allows you to create content that’s specifically aimed at generating money.
- Decide on a domain: You can call your blog almost anything. Don’t fret over this step. Domains that are related to the target SEO keyword have a bit of an advantage, but not by much.
- Buy your domain and web hosting: You can buy a domain and web host under one roof. Most web hosts out there will give you free domain registration the first time you sign up. This site is hosted by Kinsta. It’s a great host, but perhaps not for beginners. For beginners, we recommend an entry level web host like Dreamhost. Check out the best web hosts for small to medium sized businesses.
- Create your site: If you don’t know how to do it, get in touch and we will be glad to help you set up your website. It’s something that anybody can do with a little patience. We recommend that you use WordPress for your site since it’s the most beginner friendly CMS.
- Start blogging: Once your site is set up, you can start blogging. That’s the only way that you are going to get the kind of audience that you need to turn this into a business. Create relevant content and do so at a fairly regular pace and you will notice your site beginning to grow.
Monetize your site
It pays to think of your site as a business right from the beginning. That way, you will have a pretty good idea how you are going to monetize it. Blogs can be monetized using the ways given below. Note that some of these steps will be explained later.
- Using display ads such as Google AdSense
- Through Affiliate Marketing
- By selling your own products.
- Through Amazon Associates
- By writing sponsored posts
Do affiliate marketing
One way of ensuring that you spend more time with your family while building an online business is through Affiliate Marketing. This is a subject that I have covered a lot on this site. Read my article on affiliate marketing basics to learn more. I am only going to give a summary here;
What is affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a system where brands engage the services of affiliates who do marketing on their behalf. Affiliates are paid a commission based on the number of sales that they make. From a brand’s perspective, hiring affiliates is a good way of reaching out to a wider market. From an affiliate’s point of view, affiliate marketing is a good way of earning money online.
How I do affiliate marketing
Remember what we said about a blog being the starting point for building an online business? Affiliate marketing works best if you have your own site. You need to have a platform on which to make a pitch to people.
As an example, I am an affiliate of a company called Shopper Approved. This company is into online reviews. If you want to get star ratings in Google Ads, this is the company that you should go for.
Anyway, I have written a number of articles on Shopper Approved, and some of them are at the top on Google. So, they get a lot of traffic.
The result is that I have been able to refer over 300 people to Shopper Approved over the years. And this company is one of the reasons why I don’t actually need to do any more work. For as long as I live, I will continue to get paid for these referrals. I get thousands of dollars per month from Shopper Approved alone.
How am I paid?
Shopper Approved uses the recurring income payment model for it’s affiliates. You can check out my article on the best affiliate marketing companies with recurring income to learn more. All that I can say here is that I get paid a certain percentage each time somebody settles their monthly subscription to Shopper Approved. That’s for people that I referred to the company. So, for 300 people, I get thousands and the money will continue rolling in.
Build your own eCommerce business
This is another great way of building an online business. And the great thing is that you can do this while traveling or spending more time with your family. There are many options when it comes to eCommerce businesses. The following are some of these options;
Sell your own goods and services
You can sell your own goods on your own site. Again, you need to create a website to get here. If you don’t know where to get started, get in touch. I will create an eCommerce site for you at an affordable rate. When done, you can turn your site into an online business by selling various items on there. There is no limit to the kind of things that can be sold online.
Sell other people’s products and services
The things that you sell as part of your online business do not have to be limited to your own items. You can sell other people’s products on your site or on other sites. All that you need to do is to know where to get the goods. You also need to know how such things as returns are going to be resolved.
Sell on Amazon
This is an alternative open to those that do not have their own sites. You can do eCommerce on a platform like Amazon. List goods there and sell them to people. Amazon pushes goods worth billions of dollars around the world every year. And very few of these items are actually by Amazon itself. Rather, they are from people like you and I, who are looking to start earning something extra by building online businesses.
Amazon FBA
We have previously written an article comparing Amazon FBA and Affiliate Marketing. Amazon FBA is another option for those looking to get into eCommerce. FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. It’s essentially an online business model where you ship goods to Amazon’s warehouses and they handle shipping to your clients for you. The disadvantage is that you need to have enough capital to spend on your initial inventory. And you bear the costs if you fail to make sales.
Start Dropshipping Business
Alternatively, you can do dropshipping. The great thing about dropshipping is that you do not have to worry about inventory and initial capital expenditure. What you are essentially doing is acting as a middleman between the customer and the supplier.
You never actually see the goods. All that you do is market them and when a customer buys, they are shipped directly from the supplier to the customer. The supplier handles any customer issues, such as returns and refunds.
I do many of these things
Remember what I said about me only giving you practical advice? Well, I do many of the things that I mentioned above. They are how I have been able to build my own online business that allows me to spend time with my family.
I am into affiliate marketing
First of all, I earn much of my income via affiliate marketing. This is something that I have already mentioned in this post. I am an affiliate for a wide range of companies, including Shopper Approved, Kinsta, Dreamhost and SEMrush.
I have my own eCommerce business
I also use my website to sell various digital products that I have created. These include courses and services that I offer. The following are examples;
- A DIY Facebook Ads Marketing Course
- Google Ads marketing service
- Facebook Ads marketing service
- Google Ads and Facebook Ads setup plans
- Marketing funnel setup plans
Build a business selling online courses
Online courses have really taken off over the past few years as a means of monetizing websites. I have already spoken about the DIY Facebook Ads Marketing Course. If you are like the average human being, you probably have a few things that you are really good at.
Why not turn that knowledge into money through courses. If you go online, you will discover that there are many types of courses out there. As an example, you can create a course on how to build a website. People will then pay for access to course materials.
Not only that, but you could also convince these people to get web hosting or SEO from a particular provider with whom you have signed up as an affiliate. So, you could even afford to offer your course for free, knowing very well that you will get your money from affiliate companies.
Advertise your online business on Facebook and Google
If you are really serious about building your online business, you need to go beyond the customers that you get through organic traffic. Don’t get me wrong; organic traffic is the best. It’s what most people strive for. The great thing is that you don’t really need to pay for it.
However, relying on Google and other search engines to give you traffic may spell doom for your business. At least at the beginning. Your site is not going to go to the top the moment you launch it. It can take years!
But what do you do in the interim? Well, this is where advertising comes into play. As noted earlier, I am a specialist in Google and Facebook Advertising. You can use these platforms to reach out to your prospects.
The great thing is that advertising puts you right at the top. If you go to Google today, you will notice that ads occupy the tops spot on result pages. Of course, you will have competitors. So, you may need to angle for long tail keywords.
Talk to me about Google and Facebook Ads
If you need help getting started with Google and Facebook advertising, don’t hesitate to reach out to me today. I will make it happen as far as building an online business that helps you spend more time with your family is concerned.
Go for passive income
Passive income is another of my favorite topics on this blog. It’s something that I have already mentioned several times here. To summarize, passive income is income that’s earned without having to put in regular work.
Most of the ventures that are outlined here will get you some degree of passive income. As an example, if you do affiliate marketing and get sales on products and services offering recurring payments, that’s passive income.
This is something that I do. I earn passive income from many of the companies for which I am an affiliate. The result is that I can sit back and relax without having to worry about where my next paycheck will come from.
You too can do it. The trick lies in building your online business to such a level that it no longer requires your constant attention.
Build a strong mailing list/followers/subscribers
That really is the trick when it comes to building an online business to enable you to spend time with your family. Yes, you can get traffic to your site the organic way. And yes, you have the option to get traffic through Google and Facebook Ads, among other ways.
However, that is never going to be enough. What you need to do is to create loyalty. There are several ways of doing it. You can offer people something in return for giving you their email addresses. That way, you will have an easier way of reaching out to them to make sales.
On social media, you should strive to have as many followers as possible. If you go to YouTube, you will notice that the most successful people are those who have thousands of subscribers. So, whenever they produce a video, these people are notified.
All this ensures that you keep selling to the same people. Of course, you should never make it spammy. And you should only sell to relevant goods and services to relevant people. Otherwise people are going to unsubscribe.
Monetize these subscribers
The great thing about building a loyal following is that you can monetize it. This is another way that many people use to build online businesses. You can, as an example, offer monthly subscriptions for access to some services.
You do need to offer something valuable, however. Otherwise nobody is going to need to pay. Just to give an example, you may have built a news website that’s open to the public. However, you could put some in-demand content behind a pay wall.
This would be accessible only to people who have subscribed. Do this, and you will be assured of a continued stream of income.
Use social media to boost your online business
Success building an online business depends on reaching out to as many people as is possible. That way, you will have a chance of convincing some of them to buy or subscribe or whatever the desired outcome.
The great thing is that you can reach out to people via social media. If you are doing affiliate marketing as an example, you can do so through platforms such as Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. Of course, you are going to have to research rules for these platforms.
Nevertheless, social media is a good way of reaching out to people. And we are not talking about ads here. We are talking organic social media. If you build a Facebook Page for your business, as an example, and if you produce helpful content there, the page can become a useful source for lead generation.
Instagram is great for marketing
Instagram tends to perform the best when it comes to marketing for brands. It should, therefore, form part or the overall marketing strategy for your online business. Instagram is owned by Facebook and the great thing is that ads can be delivered on both platforms if you set it that way.
How I was able to do it
This is something that I have already talked about. My online business covers affiliate marketing for other brands and selling my own products using affiliates. But how do I do it? How do I reach out to clients? Well, most of my clients come via content marketing. They get to my site from Google and other search engines. So, I need to keep creating relevant content.
I also do lots of advertising on Google and Facebook. That way, I get traffic even for keywords for which I may not be organically competitive.
The result is that I have build my own online business so well that I no longer need to work. I can spend as much time with my family as is possible. And I can work from anywhere. Having my own online business is how I was able to quit my 9 to 5. You too can do it using the steps outlined above.
