Laptop Entrepreneur Vs Bricks-And-Mortar Entrepreneur

Today, thanks to the Internet, entrepreneurs still in their 20s or 30s are setting up home-based Internet businesses that they run in their spare time, bringing in $5,000 to $30,000 a month.

They can travel anytime they want, and they have the freedom to run their business from anywhere in the world. And best of all, their websites are making money for them, while they sleep!

In his book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", author Robert Kiyosaki explains that to escape the 'rat race' you need to spend less than you earn and invest the difference in buying income-producing assets (e.g. shares or rental properties).

The goal is to eventually have the income from your assets replace your earnings from your job. That's how you achieve financial freedom, he explains.

When I was starting out with my business I was $12,000 in debt, I had zero income, no job, and I was homeless. Buying income-producing assets wasn't an option. Instead, I decided to build income-producing assets. Eventually, these web businesses would grow to generate thousands of dollars a day.

By the time I reached my late twenties I had 64,000 clients in 116 countries worldwide, and 16 different income streams. I could work from home... or whilst travelling around the world... or from the luxury cabin of a cruise ship in the Caribbean... in fact I could do this from any place on the planet where I could get an Internet connection!

Furthermore, my first Internet business only cost $400 to set up, and yet was bringing in more than $10,000 a month in income! When you compare the costs of running a normal bricks-and-mortar business to those of an Internet business, the differences are striking!

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Costs of running a simple home-based Internet business
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Internet connection $20/month
Getresponse autoresponder service $60/month
Gotowebinar webinar service $99/month
Hosting $15/month
2 Outsourcers (web design, customer service) $500/month
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Total: $694/month

Imagine having a business that...

- Costs practically nothing to set up
- You don't need staff
- You don't need offices
- You don't need a shop
- You can work from home
- You can work from anywhere in the world
- Other people are selling your products for you, for FREE! (e.g. affiliates)
- Your business runs on autopilot (e.g. people buy your products from your websites automatically)
- You get to leverage incredible technologies such Email, Search Engines, Affiliate Programs, Voice-Over-IP, Online Auctions, Video streaming, Webinars, and Social Media!

... And all you need... is your laptop!

Other benefits of the Laptop Entrepreneur Lifestyle include:

* Total flexibility! You can work when you feel like it... You can get up as early or as late as you want... no more alarm clocks... You can take days off whenever you feel like it...

* You don't have a boss! No more taking orders from a nincompoop! You can even experience the satisfaction of 'firing' your boss! (Laptop Entrepreneurs often start their businesses in their spare time, whilst still working at a job. Eventually when their income from their Laptop Business exceeds that of their salary, they 'fire' their boss!)

* You don't have to deal with annoying coworkers anymore! No more bickering, no more office politics, no more endless pointless boring meetings...

* You can be a stay-at-home dad, or a stay-at-home mom! No need for nurseries, or a nanny... You get to see your children grow up...

* You can spend more time with your loved ones, your family, your friends... you can visit them and stay with them in different countries around the world...

* No more commuting... getting stuck in traffic every day... wasting hours every day... spending a fortune on petrol...

* You can travel any time you want, visiting different countries... you can go to seminars, take a course, learn new things, expand your horizons...

* You can live by the beach... you can 'retire to the sun' now, rather than wait until you're 65!

* You can live in a low-tax or zero-tax jurisdiction... no more spending a fortune and weeks of your time on accountants every year!

* You can give yourself a pay rise every month! (e.g. you can increase your earnings every month, simply by growing your mailing list every month!)

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A typical day in the life of a Laptop Entrepreneur
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My typical day looks something like this. I wake up, take a shower, and step outside to take in the fresh sea air, admire the view and play with my Golden Retriever, Leo.

I then have a breakfast of fresh 'Green Juice' (cucumber, celery, apples, spinach, avocado) with my partner, while relaxing on the loungers by our swimming pool.

I then sit at my laptop, answering some emails, to arrange a joint venture or a webinar or product launch, or to give assignments to my team of outsourcers.

I then take a break and go cycling through the mountain trails next to our house, taking Leo for a run. In the summer we usually end up on the beach in front of our house, where we love to swim.

In the afternoon I'll usually write, creating products, blog posts, content for my membership sites or my books, and emails to send to my mailing list. Or sometimes I'll study a new course, to find out new business strategies.

In the afternoon my partner and I go play tennis, or we go out with our friends for a meal, or for some relaxation at the spa on our resort. In the evening, we like to just relax by the fireplace, have a nice meal, and watch a DVD.

Once a week, on average, I do a 90-minute webinar for my clients.

We go on 6-7 trips a year, around Europe, or to more 'exotic' locations such as Thailand, The Maldives, Bermuda, The Caribbean, Senegal, Egypt, Australia, etc.

If I want to take a 4-month break or a 6-month break to write a book... then I do just that!

If you like the sound of this, welcome to the world of The Laptop Entrepreneur!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_L_Anastasi

By Mark Anastasi

Make Money Now Easily With No Money Invested!

ClickBank can be the answer to your money making prayers. All you need is an internet connection and a blog or website. You can set up a blog for free with blogger. Clickbank allows you to look through a long list of thousands of products to sell on your blog. You should have chosen your own niche and Clickbank will have many products that would suit your target market in this niche.

The only work required of you if you want to be a success at this is to research your chosen products. Once you are confident you have found a good product you can sell it on your blog for a commission. Commissions range in value and you can expect anything from 25-75%.

Once you have registered with them as an affiliate you can sell any product you please.  On choosing a product you will be issued an affiliate link. This is the link you will attach to your blog. Clickbank also offers free marketing material to help the advertisement attract more attention. 

When someone visits your blog and clicks on this product they will be transported straight to a sales page designed by the owner of the product. There is absolutely no work on your part in this sales page. If the visitor goes ahead and purchases the product your Clickbank account will be immediately topped up with your commission. There is no interaction between the affiliate and the owner of the product. The buyer pays Clickbank and they pay both the owner and the affiliate.

If you have little time and little money to invest blogging and Clickbank is the perfect start. After you have made your first blog you will realise how fast it can be done again. It takes maybe half an hour to set up a blog and Clickbank is completely free. It offers the perfect solution to your making money online quest.

You should also consider the prospect of producing your own products to sell on Clickbank. Everyone has his/her own interests. If you enjoy writing and there is some value you can offer others then put it on paper, or type it up I should say! EBooks tend to offer specialised knowledge for very specific topics. Harnessing the power of Clickbank and leveraging the thousands of affiliates readily available to sell your product you could turn a few hours writing into your first real income stream.

I attended a seminar lately on internet marketing where Simon Coulson, an online millionaire said it all started for him when he wrote his first eBook “British Buying Property in Bulgaria”. It shocked me to hear he had absolutely no knowledge of this topic before he wrote it. He had done his market research; the demand for British investment in Bulgarian property was huge as investors stood to quadruple their investment after Bulgaria joined EU. He capitalised on this.

He used the internet to accumulate all the information on the topic and compressed it into a document. He sold it using his website and Clickbank for 30$. This eBook went on to bank him over $300K! After that success he released a range of informational eBooks on varied topics banking him on average $25K/year/book!! He was unemployed living in his parents’ house on his laptop. I hope that inspires you as it did me.

I will be adding “how to” videos on making your first blog and also a run through of advertising a Clickbank product on your blog. Make sure to subscribe and receive your free eBook and I shall forward on the videos at a later date.  Get involved!

Online Home Business: The Benefits

Running an online home business has many benefits. If you are considering researching home business ideas, here are a few of the positive things about starting a home business online. 

An online home business is very easy to start. Previously if you were to start a home business it would involve a lot of planning and work to get your business successfully off the ground. 

Nowadays, with the internet that is no longer the case, as anyone with an internet connection can start an online home business. 

Affiliate marketing is a good example of how easy it is to start an online business. You can join an affiliate program and be promoting your product online literally in a few minutes.

The start-up costs are very low. It is not going to cost you much money at all, although costs will vary depending on the type of home business you start. 

Affiliate programs are free to join and many residual income opportunities will cost you less than $100 to get started. If you choose to do other things like article writing or blog posting these will not cost you any money at all. 

You can outsource what you can’t do yourself. If you are new to working online you will not yet have mastered the internet marketing skills required to promote a business. But you don’t have to worry about that as it is easy to find people to do things for you at a reasonable price. 

Fiverr is a great website where you can hire people for five dollars per project and Easy Outsource and Odesk are other websites where you can hire employees. 

You have the opportunity to earn unlimited income. Your goal no doubt is to make as much money as you can. 

You know exactly what your monthly salary is when you have a job and this makes it easier to budget and plan your life, however, it does not make it easy to achieve your dreams. 

With an online home business you can make as much money as you want. Once you are making money with your first website you can then increase your income by starting another one and so on. There is no limit to what you can do online. 

Consider working with people to make money through joint ventures as well as earning off the efforts of others with network marketing opportunities. 

You don’t need high skill levels. To start and run a successful online home business does not mean that you need to have a college education 

Whilst you will need to master some internet marketing skills to drive traffic to your site, anyone can learn these if they are prepared to spend the time working at it. 

The above is just some of the many benefits of having an online home business. It is very easy and cheap to start an online business from home and with work can be very profitable.

The 3 Most Commonly Accepted Affiliate Myths

Affiliate marketing has become really vast, which is why it is surrounded by a number of myths. If you want to know what those myths are, keep reading. 

One affiliate marketing myth that's still around is the one where affiliates think they need to spend countless hours making websites and various blogs and then keeping them up. It's important for you to understand that affiliate marketing doesn't require much effort at all when it comes to designing a website and keeping it up with the intent of offering products. Why, you ask? That's because you don't have to keep adding to it to keep it up. An example of this would be if you had a site that was intended to review a product that you happen to be promoting. This site could stay like it is forever, unless there was something that changed with the product. There are times when you'll see that such review pages remain the same for years, without any addition of new content. It should now be apparent that you don't need to spend a lot of time making a page for the purpose of selling affiliate products. Not only that, but blogs and Squidoo pages that have your products for sale only require you to do what you can to make sure you have enough backlinks to keep your same search engine ranking. Beyond that, it's completely your call as to what additional products or information you want to add. 

Another wrong impression about affiliate marketing is that you can't get positive results because of all of the people that are doing the same thing. Yes, there are a few niche markets where there is tons of competition, but that also means that there is opportunity in there. But on the other hand, there are also niche markets that have low numbers of competition. If you are serious about creating success, you must be able to do better than the competition because this will let you see what affiliate marketing is all about. 

Also, it's a myth that you need many visitors to actually get sales for your affiliate product. Although you want targeted traffic coming to your particular site, it is even more important. There are sites that receive huge number of visitors but don't have many conversions. This basically means that in order to continue making consistent sales, you have to ensure that you provide what your visitors are looking for. So you see there are plenty of affiliate marketing myths, new ones as well as ones from several years ago. It's your ability to look past these myths to the goals you've set for yourself that will determine your success or failure in this business.

Getting Familiar with Affiliate Marketing

Some great info in this article. This business rewards well if approached the right way. Happy reading...

Affiliate Marketing basically means selling other people’s products. It can be done in the physical world or through the internet. They both have the same basic principles but since they sell in different ways, they use different strategies. Whatever strategies used, it still involves earning through commissions once somebody buys the product from you. It is like being the middle man. 

Affiliate marketing through the internet involves having a website that has facts or useful information about some benefits that one can get from a certain product and a link to the merchant’s page that offers the product. 

For instance, you have a website and you want to sell a merchant’s product. You need to have some general facts or interesting information about the product, and lead your site visitors to click on a link that will show the sales page of the product. Your main goal is to do great marketing on the internet so that when your potential customers reach the sales page, they would have no other decision but to make a purchase. 

Affiliate marketing is also known to be a business where you could have passive income. This means that you can start it up by having a website that has very rich contents, compelling your target market to know more about the product until they make a purchase; and with little inputs, you will continue earning as long as you started your business right. If there will be a time when you need to take a vacation, you can do so while your site directs people to the sales page and continues with the sales conversion. 

When you join an affiliate program, you will have your own affiliate link. This means that you will have a page created by the merchant where you can direct people and when they make a purchase, you automatically get the commission. This is because that page has your affiliate id and every sale that went through is considered yours. 

Affiliate programs also have unique setup on cookies. If somebody sees a merchant’s site through your link, cookies are saved in their computer. These cookies contain your link information. Consider that they didn’t buy at the onset of seeing the page, when they go back to the merchant’s site, going directly to their business site address and decided to purchase, the sale is still considered yours. 

However, cookies can usually be saved under your link in up to 90 days, depending on the merchant. So, you need to be aware of this when joining an affiliate program; or you may choose to sell a merchant’s product that gives longer time for cookies to be set under your link. 

There are still a lot of things to know about affiliate marketing. It is lucrative but it is not a get rich quick business. Just like any other businesses, you must have focus, planning, and direction in it. You must also exert time and effort to reach your aspirations. It is best to think that you will surely be successful in it, you can get going. 




by: Ruth Abigail Sebastian

Starting Your Victorious Affiliate Marketing Venture

I came across this article and thought it would be worth the read for you newbies out there!


Recession has affected the whole world. There are lots of businesses that needed to close and lots of people who lost their jobs. Bankruptcy became usual to almost everyone’s ear and lots of families fear about their future. There are even people who keep blaming others, and there are also groups the aim to keep on looking for solutions. One solution to fight recession is to start a business, an online business such as affiliate marketing. 

Just like any other businesses, affiliate marketing needs time, effort, and careful planning in order to be successful with it. The good thing is that with affiliate marketing, you do not need to think about and spend on creating your own product or service. There are already a lot of products and services online that are available for selling. All you need to do is to become an affiliate and you will be given a link where your customers can make a purchase under your name. This sounds easy, but there are things to consider before starting. 

Affiliate Marketing is surely a lucrative business. There are already a lot of people who earn a lot from it. However, to reach the most aspired victory in this endeavor, you need to start with it the proper way. Since there are a lot of products and services available online to sell, do not be confused with jumping to picking the product that gives the highest commissions and then look for people who might be interested with it. 

The best way to start with affiliate marketing is to have a niche or a target market. This means a group of people that share a common concern or problem that they need to find a solution with. Use relevant keywords as you pretend to be a consumer looking for a solution to your problem through the internet. It would be good to search for something that you are familiar with or interested with so it will be easier for you to find a solution with it. 

Once you already identified a common problem. Join forums and interact with your target market. Read on their concerns and identify the biggest points that they want to be addressed; then look for products or services that would serve as an answer to them. In doing this, you are having a hungry market, and they would most probably buy your product when you start promoting or endorsing it. 

Affiliate marketing could really bring you heaping revenue but you need to really be serious with it as well. It is not a get rich overnight business like what others promise you, and starting it right will surely bring you the victory that you aspire. You must plan on how you are supposed to market the products, create your own website and have your own branding. 

It is best to personally be known in the business rather than just let the products that you endorse be the ones popular. Keep this in mind and your loyal customers will even be following you and buying your products and services. This is the victory in affiliate marketing. 

By Ruth Abigail Sebastian

Turn Your Computer Into An ATM Today For Free....

Unhappy, unfulfilled and broke...

That was me. 

I had a good job in the grand scheme of things but I was just getting by.  The few euros left over in the kitty at the end of the month weren't going to give me the finer things I desired in life. The future was bleak. I needed a plan. So the search began.

After spending nearly a month in the library with all the best entrepreneurial literature available I realised this could be done. My problem was money and time. I had little to none of both! After attending a few seminars I found what I was looking for and I couldn't believe it! I was to enter the unfamiliar online world of blogging, list building, online marketing, product development and affiliate marketing.

If you were offered resources to generate as many income streams as you like for free, would you take advantage of that opportunity? I did!

It answered all my problems:

1. It required no start up costs
2. I could work at my own pace on my laptop at home in my pyjamas
3. I didn't need to buy any products
4. I didn't need to set up any website
5. I worked for myself and it was enjoyable
6. It's money making prospects were endless

Some of you may not be aware but setting up an online blog is completely free(www.blogger.com). You can design it any which way you please. The first step is to choose a niche. It can be anything. You should focus on finding one which solves a problem which many people suffer from. It has to be an area you are very interested in and are willing to learn about. Whether it be fitness, business, personal development, weight loss or how about turning your laptop into an ATM!! 

Once you have your niche, Its design time. Its as simple as cycling a bike if your a professional mountain biker! All the tools are readily explained. Your blog will now need content. Fill it with information that provides value to interested visitors. You can do this in many ways, some like to write, some like to study and combine other peoples articles on the subject.

Time to Monetize!!

Ever heard of Affiliate Marketing???

People with products to sell need your help and will pay for it. Check out a website called www.clickbank.com. On it you will find thousands of products that vendors will pay you up to 75% commission for selling their products(It's FREE!). This doesn't involve knocking on every neighbourhood door with a tangible product. This involves basically copying and pasting a link on their site to your blog which leaves an attractive advertisement on your blog. Now if someone visits your blog and clicks on one of these products advertised  and purchases it you have money in your bank account! Once set up its money making capabilities are endless. How is it free?? :)

Ever heard of Google Adsense????

Did you know Google will also offer you money in return for advertising on your blog? Its beautiful really. They advertise relevant products to your niche. You have complete control over what goes on. The best bit is that every time someone visits your blog and clicks(no purchase required!) on a Google advertisement they pay you. 

But of course you'll need one important thing. TRAFFIC!! We need people to come to us and that's where social media comes in and where the money rolls in. Guess what, traffic is free too!! Ever get one of those annoying adds telling you you can make crazy amounts of money from just facebooking or twittering? I've learnt this can be true. On this blog I'll go through how I began turning my laptop into and ATM. I'll update again soon. Make sure to sign up to receive my free eBook above"Six Tips To Help Turn Your Laptop Into An ATM".

Its important to note that I am in no way a computer whiz. Trust me when I say this is easy. Anyone can do it. Although I was working heavy hours in my own job I committed only 2 hours to this every night starting off. It can be built much faster. I hope you can see the potential something like this has. I will enjoy educating you all!