100 Things to Do in Tampa Bay in 2022

Looking for things to do in Tampa Bay? You’ve come to the right place because I’ve created a list of 100 of them!

  1. Spend the day at Busch Gardens. In the summer time, visit Adventure Island too!
  2. Tour the Tampa Theatre and watch a movie there too!
  3. Take in a football game at Raymond James Stadium
  4. Watch the Lightning play at Amalie Arena
  5. Try your luck at Seminole Hard Rock Casino Tampa
  6. Have a fancy shmancy dinner at one of Hard Rock’s restaurants
  7. Get your steak on at Bern’s – don’t forget to hit the dessert room after dinner!
  8. Have a cocktail on the roof at Edge Rooftop Bar at the Epicurean Hotel
  9. Take a cooking class at Publix
  10. Go bowling at Splitsville
  11. Grab a bite to eat on the water at Ukelele’s. Now, it’s technically in Land O’ Lakes, but worth the drive! Be sure to visit on a night that they have live music.
  12. Learn line dancing at The Roundup or The Dallas Bull
  13. Take in a Broadway show at The Straz
  14. Go for a walk on the Tampa Riverwalk
  15. Head to Jackson’s for some yummy sushi
  16. Talk to the fishies at the Florida Aquarium
  17. Get your science on at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI)
  18. Enjoy a sunset cruise with StarLite Cruises – I actually got married on the StarLite Majesty in 2006!
  19. Watch the Rays play at Tropicana Field
  20. Visit the animals at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo
  21. Tour Tampa, St. Pete or Clearwater on a Segway – I did this in St. Pete. So much fun!
  22. Race your friends in go-karts at Grand Prix Tampa
  23. Explore the American Victory Ship & Museum
  24. Have a picnic at Cypress Point Park – then stick around to play disc golf, walk the trails, or even lay on the beach while watching planes take off and land every few minutes.
  25. Get your laugh on at the Tampa Improv or Sidesplitters Comedy Club
  26. Speedboat your way around Tampa Bay
  27. Play a different type of golf game at TopGolf
  28. Take a helicopter tour of Tampa Bay – I did this, and it was ahhhhhmazing! We left out of Davis Island airport
  29. Try your hand at flying a plane – You can take a flying lesson at a place like Tampa North Flight Center
  30. Admire the large felines at Big Cat Rescue
  31. Bet on the horses at Tampa Bay Downs
  32. Pour your own candles at Candle Pour in Hyde Park. You can choose your own scent, and select your vessel, and then pour your perfect candle at the pour bar. How fun is that?!?
  33. Sing your heart out at a concert at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
  34. Check out an expo at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Or if it’s February, actually attend the Florida State Fair
  35. Then, in March head to Plant City for the Strawberry Festival
  36. Get cultured at the Tampa Museum of Art
  37. Go for a bike ride, in the water. No really! You can go water biking with Tampa Water Bikes!
  38. Head to any library and rent books, music, movies, and even video games!
  39. Golf at one of the amazing courses around Tampa Bay! I’ve always been partial to the Westchase Golf Club
  40. Feed the Pelicans at the Pier in St. Pete
  41. Sing a song or two (or three!) at Gaspar’s Patio Bar & Grill!
  42. If you’re into abstract paintings, check out the Salvador Dali Museum
  43. Take in a soccer game at the Rowdies stadium
  44. Go bar hopping in Ybor City
  45. Grab lunch at one of the eateries in Sparkman Wharf
  46. Get a massage at the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater. I personally recommend their aromatherapy massages. It’s the only one I’ve ever fallen asleep during because it was soooooooo relaxing!
  47. Have dinner at the Maritana Grill at the pink palace, aka The Don Cesar
  48. Enjoy a delicious grouper sandwich at Frenchy’s in Clearwater
  49. Drink and dine at Caddy’s St. Pete Beach
  50. Indulge in a wine tasting at Cru Cellars inside Armature Works, and then grab some ice cream at Astro Ice Cream Co.
  51. Swim with the manatees in Crystal River
  52. Get flashed, or rather see what subjects have been flashed at Florida Museum of Photographic Arts
  53. Get your history on at the Tampa Bay History Center
  54. Go for a run or walk on Bayshore Boulevard – I recommend going at sunrise or sunset for the best views
  55. Canoe down Hillsbrough River from Hillsborough River State Park
  56. Stroll through Bulls Country – dine at the USF Marshall Center and then walk the grounds of the campus
  57. Go shopping at International Plaza and the Shops at Bay Street
  58. Tour the Yuengling Brewery and then sample their beers
  59. Take in a baseball game at George M. Steinbrenner Field
  60. Enjoy a taste of Thailand with a visit to the Wat Mongkolrata Temple
  61. Stop by the Florida Cane Distillery and enjoy a tasting
  62. Get a beer flight at 3 Daughters Brewing in St. Petersburg
  63. Enjoy a sunset walk at Vinoy Park
  64. Bring your furry friend to Davis Island Dog Beach
  65. Take time to smell the flowers at University of South Florida’s Botanical Gardens
  66. Get a glimpse of firefighting history at the Tampa Firefighters Museum
  67. Try your hand at Glassblowing in Gulfport
  68. Get your dance on at The Castle in Ybor City
  69. Back the blue with a visit to the Tampa Police Museum
  70. Climb the walls at Vertical Ventures
  71. Try to escape at The Great Escape Room Tampa
  72. Paint pottery at You Do the Dishes
  73. Try and get a good deal at one of the many thrift shops in Tampa – My favorites have always been The Spring Thrift Store, Hope Children’s Home, and Life’s Treasures
  74. Explore the Oldsmar Flea Market to see what treasures await.
  75. Take a water taxi around downtown Tampa or ride an eBoat
  76. Throw axes at Axe Throwing Tampa
  77. Explore Michael Murphy Gallery and check out the art of the locals
  78. Visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Though it’s smaller than the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, because it’s a working marine rescue center, you get a completely different experience
  79. Try inventive foods at Datz and Datz Dough
  80. Go deep sea fishing
  81. Look for those who’ve not crossed over in a ghost tour – I went on one through downtown Tampa
  82. Go skydiving – you can either jump out of a plane in Zephyrhills like my husband did, or do it indoors at a place like iFly Indoor Skydiving
  83. Find your balance with stand up paddleboarding in Safety Harbor or really any place that offers it in Tampa Bay
  84. Tour the Cigar Facotry in Ybor City
  85. Cycle your way through a brew or two with the Kraken Cycleboats tour
  86. Go parasailing at Clearwater Beach
  87. Visit the original Hooters in Clearwater
  88. Indulge in Christmas year round at Robert’s Christmas Wonderland
  89. Savor the sweetness at Dylan’s Candy Bar at the airport and then watch the planes taking off and landing. That’s always been one of my favorite things to do is visit the airport, walk around the shops and then watch the planes. Maybe I’m weird though 🤣
  90. Dine while you watch a movie at CineBistro
  91. Ride the Trolley’s from Ybor City to downtown Tampa and back
  92. Take aim at Shooters World gun range
  93. Bounce of the walls at AirHeads Trampoline Arena
  94. Go to the beach – why is this so far down on the list you ask? I lived in Tampa for 35 years and went to the beach maybe 35 times, if that. I’m more of a pool girl than a beach girl. To each their own! Personally, of the two areas, I prefer St. Pete Beaches to Clearwater beaches because they always felt less crowded. Again – it’s a preference thing I suppose.
  95. Try scuba diving. I did this with Calypso Divers in Tampa because they had a saltwater pool to try it out before attempting open water.
  96. Tap into your inner Katniss Everdeen and try archery at Adventures Archery shooting range
  97. Play pool at Peabody’s – This was a favorite hangout for years for me and my husband
  98. Snap some pics with a Tampa Bay Photography Tour
  99. Revisit yesteryear and indulge in rollerskating at United Skates of America or Skateworld – I won’t tell you how many Fridays I spent at Skateworld growing up. The big reason? I lost count!
  100. DIY Bus Tour – Get an all day bus pass, and tour Tampa by bus. This was actually one of the first dates my husband and I ever went on. We started near USF and hopped all over Tampa having lunch and snacks at various stops around the city. It was one of my favorite dates we ever went on!

Six Methods of Making Money Online

If you’re like me, you’re looking for methods of making money online. In this post, I cover just six of them. Check them out, and see if any of them resonate with you!

Methods of Making Money Online #1 – Freelance Service Provider

Maybe you picture yourself living a certain lifestyle, but you don’t quite have the means to be able to carry that vision out at the moment. One way that you can fund the lifestyle that you want to have is to become a freelance service provider.

You’ll be able to set your own hours, be your own boss and make your goals or dreams come true. Working from home at your leisure is a big perk many people wish they had, and now they can!

How Working for Others Can Grow Your Income Fast

You have to have money to fund your lifestyle. If you’re like most people, you don’t want to take years to build up your income. One way to grow it fast is to work for others. When you work for others, there’s no wait time for you to get started.

You can land projects to work on right away. As your own boss, you don’t have to take on the projects that you don’t feel will be a good fit or that don’t pay what you want them to pay.

Working for others is the fastest way to get money in the bank. There are other ways – like building a blog as affiliate – but it takes time to build that kind of income. In some niches, it can take nearly a year and a half to even hit a four figure month.

You might be someone who’s working a side hustle and you’ve been busy creating your own products. That takes creative energy, plus time. You have to come up with the idea, then write it up or outsource it, develop the graphics if you have any, and get it on your website or third party platform.

Then after that, you have to work to promote it and then hope your audience responds favorably and purchases the product. So building a blog or creating info products can both be good ideas, but as a way to build income fast, they’re not.

The income you want to make is in the service industry. Working for others allows you to take on projects quickly. You can take on as many as you feel like you can handle and still be able to deliver quality work.

As a freelance service provider, you’re not limited to any particular niche. You’re only limited by your knowledge and skill set – but you can grow both of those. If you’re wondering what type of services you can offer, the answer is whatever you like as long as there’s a market.

You’ll be able to tell if there’s a market for it easily. All you have to do is go to a site that connects jobs with service providers and look at the categories or job offers that have been listed in the past.

This will show you what others are looking for. Some of the most common areas of freelance services are things like writing – including ghostwriting, copywriting or technical writing.

Some people are also looking for content writers or creative writers. There are other jobs waiting for people who can provide content that includes graphics or design work.

You can offer your skills as a virtual administrative assistant or as an editor.

You can offer transcription services or photography. Almost any online or work from home job that you think of can be offered as a freelance service. You can search Google to see what kinds of freelancers people are hiring, too.

Finding Projects and People to Secure as Clients

One of the first things that people who are new to the world of freelance service ask is how do they find projects and get clients. If you’re worried about that, you can relax.

There are more jobs offered for freelancers than there are people to take on the work.

So you’ll have plenty to keep you busy and you’ll be able to find work. There are places like UpWork that you can sign up for. You can look for the type of project you’d like to do by using their search function.

Or, you can use their category finder under “types of work” and just click on one of the links. For example, Sales & Marketing leads to more than 30 different projects listed. You’ll find everything from a social media manager to YouTube freelance gigs for jobs like video editing, keyword research and more.

If you’re thinking that these projects are all low paying, they’re not. Some are for the inexperienced but for people with experience, you can earn a lot of money providing your services.

The site lists the pay for each project so you know up front which ones to consider submitting a proposal for. Fiverr is another site where you can land projects. Once you sign up and create an account offering your skills or knowledge, you can get hired to do projects known as gigs.

When the company first started, all the gigs were $5 but now, the gigs can be in $5 increments. So you’ll see people offering their services such as “starting at $275” or some other amount.

You can offer freelance services such as proofreading, design, building websites, coaching, consulting and more. It’s not unheard of for people to be earning $500 and more per gig.

The more experience you have or gain, the more you can make. One woman named Charmaine Pocek used her skills and experience and made a million dollars on Fiverr.

Another way to find projects and gain clients is to network.

Word of mouth networking with marketers can quickly get your name out there and from that, you can get client referrals that will help to grow your reputation. You can do this online or in person.

Hang out in places where marketers hang out. Make it a point of telling them what you do and that you have openings in your schedule to grow your client list. If you don’t have your own website, then you definitely need to set one up.

There are a lot of ways that you can gain clients by having a space online where they can find you and learn more about your services. You can also find projects and clients on sites like LinkedIn, which lists thousands of jobs including ones for freelance service providers.

Be sure to check out places like guru.com, flexjobs.com, and mediabistro.com, too. Having your own website where you detail your skills and talents and list pricing will help you get more jobs, too.

The Most Common Freelance Gigs Available

On all of the freelance job sites, there are many different categories listed. If you have a specific skill such as in the IT industry, there are some sites that are dedicated solely to that niche and don’t offer other categories.

So if you have a specialized skill, you can also do a search for your skill, plus the words “job board” or “work from home” and you’ll get dozens of results for what you’re looking for.

However, there are some common freelance gigs available because these tend to be the ones that people are outsourcing or hiring for. These are skills that are in high demand so you won’t have trouble finding clients.

On Upwork, there’s good demand for gigs in virtual assisting, administrative task managing, editing, design, and writing. You’ll find a lot of different clients and can pick and choose the ones that you want to work with.

For example, under the editing category, you might decide that you want to edit audio projects or visual projects. But there’s also a category for editing written material like speeches, papers, guides, eBooks and more.

You can also work as a writer and the type of work that you do will relate to the skills that you have. Some people work as a resume writer. Others work as a blog writer or content marketing writer.

The better you are at what you do and the better the customer service or satisfaction you give, the more money you can make on any of the sites. On Fiverr, what people are often looking for are those who have skills or experience in categories such as graphic design.

They might want things like a logo or social media headers done. Or they may want a book cover designed. Another category there where people are always looking for a good service provider is in the area of writing.

People are always looking for someone to write cover letters or website content for their business. It doesn’t matter what type of writing that you do, there’s always a market for it because many people either don’t have time to do the writing, aren’t interested in doing it themselves or don’t know how.

Virtual assistants in administration gigs are always needed on Fiverr. You can offer things like social media management, customer support, scheduling, research, data entry and more.

If you have a knack for creating and editing video clips, this may come in handy. There are many people who need short branding videos known as intros and outros to use in their online video marketing efforts.

What Your Clients Expect for Top Dollar Earnings

There’s no room for mediocrity if you want to fund your lifestyle as a freelance service provider. You have to be the best that you can possible be if you want the top dollar earnings.

In a world where “good enough” often seems to be the mark, people get tired of substandard efforts. They’re looking for freelancers that know how to take care of them as a client.

If you want quality clients that pay big bucks, then you what you offer also has to be quality. Having the mindset that everyone is just trying to save money and won’t pay extra or what you’re worth is wrong.

There are plenty of clients willing to pay more to get more. Clients expect that the work you’re going to do for them will be great. That means that you should do your best to make sure it’s mistake-free.

If your service is writing, that means you should have a good grasp of how to write well. With all of the books and videos and tutorials that are freely available, there’s no excuse for not knowing how handle anything you need to write if that’s your skillset.

It’s the same in any niche. You may not know everything there is to know in that area, but you can learn whatever it is that that your client wants. You may be someone who’s never written a real estate blog post in your life, and you don’t understand half the terms.

But you can learn what you need to know and leave the client with a well-researched post that’s so well written and knowledgeable, it makes him glad that he hired you.

Besides making sure that you know your stuff when delivering whatever type of content you provide, you need to be sure to ask questions when you don’t fully understand the scope of what the client wants.

Some people think that asking questions will make them seem like they don’t know what they’re doing. But clarifying something makes you a service provider who cares about the outcome of the job and it helps the client know that you get whatever it is they want.

Make sure that the content you deliver is unique. Don’t rely on what everyone else is writing or designing when working on a job. Be creative and create with the client in mind.

When you do a job, go the extra mile. If you see something that could add more value to the project, let the client know. If you know a resource that can further help them with their project, you can recommend that, especially if you know they’re still looking for that.

Your clients will expect you to meet your deadlines. Nearly every service provider in the world has dealt with an emergency situation that’s impacted their ability to get a job done.

But those situations are rare. When you take on a job, make sure that you can meet or turn in the project earlier than the client needs it. This will mark you as someone who cares about the client’s timeline.

You don’t want to get a reputation as someone who holds up a client’s project because you couldn’t get stuff done on your end. For top dollar pay, clients expect you to be friendly, but remain professional.

They don’t want to be your therapist, your best friend or your coworker. They just want you to get the job done and do it right. This takes a load off their shoulders, which is one of the reasons they outsourced to begin with.

Getting Follow Up Gigs with Ease

Landing a client really isn’t that difficult, but you don’t want your clients to be the type who are one and done. You want them to need your services so that you can establish a long term working relationship with them.

There are dozens of strategies that you can use so that your clients will immediately want to give you more work. You can start by letting them know, as soon as whatever current job you’re working on them for is finished, that you have room in your schedule if they want to go ahead and book more work with you so that you’ll have time.

This comes across like you’re giving them a preferred space and makes them feel important. Make it a point of staying in touch with your clients. Check in with them via your normal contact routine to let them know you enjoyed working on their project.

You can even suggest additional work by mentioning something you may have noticed about their site, like the need for a lead magnet or whatever. You can also offer a bundle service during this follow up email.

This would be consider a bulk service buy. For example, if the client hires you to do the text content for his website, you can give a small discount if he also adds a graphics package to the project.

When you do this, always mention what they stand to get out of it. You could tell them how something you offer could increase traffic or improve conversions. This is one of the biggest ways to make sure that you get repeat clients.

You must know what it is that they need because when you tap into their need, you find out what it is they’re missing that you can provide. Some clients are overworked and too busy to handle everything on their own, which is why they hired you.

They may not realize that the same overwhelm is going to happen to them again the next month. You can turn them into a repeat client by offering your services on retainer. This retainer can be divided by different work categories, too.

For example, maybe they hired you to write blog content, but they also need someone to write their social media content or to publish it all, as a virtual administrative assistant would. You can offer to do both as part of the retainer.

Becoming an online freelance service provider is a great way to earn the kind of money that will meet your basic financial responsibilities and also provide for an increase to your lifestyle.

It provides you with the flexibility you seek in a work day and gives you the power to pick and choose who you work with. This is much better than applying for a strict 8-5 job where you have no say over when and if you get a raise, or which clients you’re assigned.

Methods of Making Money Online #2 – Affiliate Marketer

When you set out on a mission to become a successful online entrepreneur, you will be faced with the decision of which business model to pursue. This decision should be based on a mix of the profit potential you desire as well as your personal preferences for the types of tasks you will be carrying out.

One of the easiest, most lucrative, and quickest ways to earn a living on the Internet is by becoming an affiliate marketer. Not everyone who chooses this career will be able to earn a living at it.

This is not because the business model itself is flawed, but because many individuals fail to understand the proper strategy that will help them achieve the level of earnings they want.

What Does It Mean to Be an Affiliate Marketer?

When you become an affiliate marketer, you are taking on the role of an expert and guide who is willing to take your consumers concerns and needs and steer them in the right direction to a product that will provide the solution they are seeking.

Affiliate marketers, in their most distilled form, are middle men between a consumer who has money to spend and a problem to solve, and the vendors who have created the solution in the form of a digital or tangible product.

Vendors recruit affiliates, or approve them when they apply, in an effort to get more eyes on their products. It takes a lot of money and effort for them to organically attract (or pay for) traffic to their product sales pages.

That’s where you step in. You will serve a role in casting a wide net to bring more people to their site so that they can increase sales. In exchange for your efforts, you will be paid a commission that is typically 50% of the sale, but not always.

There are some vendors who pay less than half of the sale, and some who pay more. You can even find products that you can promote and earn 100% commission on. This is especially true with digital products.

As an affiliate marketer, it doesn’t mean you do not have the responsibility showcasing your expertise as a niche leader. In fact, you still have to prove to your target audience that you are a leading expert who can guide them in their decision making process.

It will be your responsibility to sift through the hundreds of competing products in the marketplace, and let buyers know which ones would be best for their purpose. You can do this through blog posts, email autoresponders, social networking posts, and more.

You have a duty to be honest with your readers and protect them from spending money on products that would not benefit them. You have to have your ethics intact so that you are not simply seeking a commission, but instead take pride in becoming the go to leader people can trust.

Your Investment of Time and Money

With any business model that you are considering as an online entrepreneur, you want to look at both the time and money you will be spending in order to build your business. The great thing about affiliate marketing is that there is a low upfront cost.

In fact, there are ways to conduct affiliate marketing without spending a dime. However, it’s always best to own your own digital space online. Therefore, purchasing a domain name and small hosting account would be wise.

You can get a domain name for as little as $0.99 if you look for a coupon code or GoDaddy. Otherwise, the domain will cost you anywhere from $12 to $17 per year. A hosting account is very inexpensive and should never cost you over $10 per month.

As time goes on, you may decide to build additional websites in other niche markets or outsource the creation of your affiliate content reviews. These are costs you can incur at a later date, and pay for them by reinvesting your initial earnings if you want to.

Another place affiliates sometimes spend money is in purchasing and reviewing the products for their blog. This is not a requirement, but it can help you gain more trust with your audience.

Typically, if you are reviewing a digital product, you have the ability to secure a complimentary review copy before the launch of the product to prepare your review. Not every vendor is willing to do this, so you may have to shell out a bit of money if you want to personally check out the product.

Tangible products will usually need to be purchased by you, because most manufacturers will not send free items out to affiliates. However, as your online reputation grows as someone who consumers are turning to for advice, you can expect companies to reach out to you and offer to send their products free in exchange for a review.

Keep in mind that your followers are depending on you to maintain and ethical approach to your reviews. If you are giving companies a positive review, simply because they sent you the product, then you are failing your audience.

You will lose their trust, which will result in your earnings diminishing. Because your influence dwindles, companies will no longer want to send you products. So it is imperative that you be upfront with companies that your reviews will be honest and truthful.

In terms of the time you will be investing as an affiliate marketer, you have much more control over this than you would in other business models. If you were a digital info product creator, you would be working under a deadline for a launch.

But as an affiliate marketer, you get to go at your own pace. Of course, the more content you publish, the more you stand to gain in a shorter amount of time. If you are only able to create two product reviews per month, it’s going to take you a long time to gain any traction.

Ideally, you need to be reviewing products once a day, or several times per week minimum. The time it takes you to create a product review will vary from person to person.

Some people are able to create a product review in five or ten minutes, while others may take hours to create and publish their review. It also depends on what type of product you are reviewing and how you are doing it.

For example, if you are reviewing a tangible product, it may take you less time to discuss the features and benefits. If you are reviewing a digital course, it may take you hours or even days to go through the entire thing.

You may not be one of those affiliates who are simply discussing what is in the product, but prefer instead to create a case study that showcases your experience with the product.

In this case, it may take days or even weeks to get the final results and publish your review. With case study reviews, you may be publishing it in a series format, where a new segment goes live every day.

Finding the Best Niches to Earn in as an Affiliate

In any business model that you pursue online, you have to make a careful analysis and decision about which niche topic you will get into. Everyone has different priorities in terms of what is important to them.

Some people just want to stay busy and explore their passion and enthusiasm for a niche topic, with money as a secondary concern. Others have an immediate focus on the income stream, with their personal satisfaction for the niche not as important.

Ideally, you want to focus on a niche that provides both for you – a good influx of profits as well as a high level of appeal for the topic itself. If you focus on the money only upfront, you will eventually burn out and feel very dissatisfied with your career and having to immerse yourself in that topic day after day.

There are so many different niches to choose from, that it’s almost impossible for you to not be able to find a niche that is both lucrative and personally satisfying. Make a list of all of the topics in life that you enjoy to start with.

You might enjoy things like gardening, your cats, cooking for your family, getting fit at the gym, learning about and applying anti-aging efforts, making money online, traveling, etc.

You also want to include things that you not only enjoy, but that you have a great deal of knowledge in. It’s okay to list things that you are a beginner at, because part of what is wonderful about affiliate marketing is sharing your learning process and the products that helped you figure things out.

Next, you want to look at the niches that offer you dual income profits. What this means is that you have the ability to bring in commissions based on the promotion of both tangible and digital products.

There are some niches that only provide for one or the other. For example, if you are in the toy niche, it is primarily tangible items only. But if you are in the motivation niche, it is a digital one.

Most niches provide the ability to earn dual commissions. For example, if you are in the anti-aging niche, you will be promoting products about how to get fit and stay healthy over at the age of 40, and you will also be promoting tangible products such as at home exercise equipment, anti-aging supplements, skin creams, and more.

You want to look at the ability to earn income from your niche topic for a long time. Evergreen niches are those that will be around now and many years from now with no sign of disappearing.

You don’t want to target a topic that is solely trend based and has a high degree of trending downward quickly. While you might be able to make money in spurts like this, it doesn’t provide for the growth of a long term business.

You want to take your list of niche topics and begin looking at the various affiliate programs and products that are available for you to earn money with. If you have chosen a niche that has a few products, and not many sales, then that would not be a good fit for your business.

Start by going to Amazon and looking at both the nonfiction books and the tangible products that are available to the target audience for this niche. You want to see how vast the product lines are, how many brands are competing for this target audience, and how many sales are coming in based on the number of reviews.

When you’re looking at these reviews, you want to make sure that there are enough products that are highly rated for you to promote. If you have chosen a niche where customers are hard to please and most products have a three star or lower rating, that may be a sign for concern.

Next, go to Commission Junction and Share a Sale and look to see how many products you can find to promote there period. When you’re done, go to ClickBank, Warrior Plus, Udemy, and JVZoo and see what types of digital products you can find to promote.

Make sure you’re looking at the commission levels of all of these to ensure that you will be making enough money with your affiliate promotions to earn the desired income you hope to achieve.

Once you have found a niche topic that looks to be profitable and one you feel you will enjoy being involved in on a day to day basis, go ahead and conduct some research for keywords and choose a domain so that you can get your affiliate site set up.

Creating Product Reviews That Can Rake in Commissions

When your site is set up for affiliate marketing, it will be time for you to start creating product reviews that will begin bringing in the kind of commission you are hoping for. Being consistent with your review publications will help grow your income for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, search engine bots will be crawling your site and your rank will increase if they can see that you are keeping your blog fresh with new content. In addition to that, human visitors will appreciate that they can come back to your site on a regular basis to find new information about products and a niche they are interested in.

There are many different types of affiliate product reviews that you can write that will earn you money. If you are limited on the amount of information that you have about certain products, then you may want to create a list review.

This is when you have something such as a top ten list of products, where you name and hyperlink the product and give a simple one to two paragraph summary of the benefits and features the product has.

This is typically information that you can gather on the sales page or product listing. You don’t need any personal, hands-on experience with the product. But you do still need to recommend items that are rated well.

Another type of review that you can do as an affiliate is a thorough individual product review. This is when you dive deep into a product to cover all of the features, benefits, and drawbacks of a product as well as discuss tips on how to use the product or maximize their return with it.

These are generally the kind of reviews that you will conduct through ownership or personal experience of the product, but not necessarily. If you are willing to gather information from other sources that give you insight into the performance of these products without personally owning it, then you can create a thorough review for your readers.

You never want to mislead your audience and make them believe that you have personally tried a product, when you haven’t. It’s okay to make recommendations based on the general marketplace availability of products, without owning each and every one.

Another type of product review that you can create is one that pits two products against one another. This is basically a compare and contrast review, where the individual features, price points, and benefits are analyzed to see which product is an overall better buy and a final recommendation is made between the two.

Increasing Earnings Over Time

As time goes on, you will be able to level up with your earnings. What started out as a simple and consistent publication of blog post reviews can transform into a multimedia empire where you are covering all bases with an audio podcast, video reviews, graphics and infographics, and of course, text.

If you want to grow your earnings outside of your blog, make sure you have a presence on all relevant social media networks where the target audience for your niche is active. You’ll want to check out sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Pinterest, YouTube, and more to see if you can grow up following.

Make sure you are driving traffic back to your website, where they can read the numerous product reviews that you have put up in detail with the links. Depending on the social network rules, you may be able to link out to individual products from each item that you publish there.

One thing you may not have considered as an affiliate marketer, is that you can build a list of subscribers. This is not something that is your reserved solely for digital info product creators.

As an affiliate, you can reach out to your loyal subscribers on a regular basis whenever you have a new product review ready for them to consume. You will also be able to steer them in the right direction whenever you find out about a special discount or sale that they need to know about.

Make sure you create a lead magnet offer that entices people to sign up to your list. This could be a buyer’s guide or a tip sheet that helps them learn how to shop smart for the niche products they are interested in.

Once you have these people on your list, you can not only send them to your blog to consume the product reviews you have posted, but you can also make recommendations directly within the email itself, depending on the rules of the platform you are promoting.

Methods of Making Money Online #3 – Digital Info Product Creator

If you’re looking for a very lucrative business model to launch in the year 2022 as an online entrepreneur, you might want to consider becoming a digital information product creator.

Decades ago, when a consumer wanted to learn something, they either had to take classes about it or read a book. But now, regardless of what time of day it is, they can download it directly onto their computer and consume the information instantly.

Digital info products sell at a much higher price point than a book you might pick up at Barnes and Noble or on Amazon. Plus, you have the added ability to recruit affiliates to promote your product for you and add to your revenue.

Digital Info Products Are a Lucrative Business Model

So just how much money can be made from selling a digital info product? Well if you are unknown, have failed to network with anyone, and don’t have a list, it won’t be as much as someone who has taken the steps to make sure their launch will be a success.

When you go through the proper product creation and launch steps, you stand to make thousands of dollars in a few days. There are some info product creators who bring in four figures in four days, and some who bring in seven figures in the same amount of time.

What you need to be focused on is creating an entire line or library of info products for your brand. It’s not just about creating a single product to put out in the marketplace – it’s about developing a series that people will keep coming back for.

When you have more than one digital info product, the sales build upon themselves. For example, your first product may have been about how to create a niche blog. your second product might be about how to rank your blog for proper search engine optimization.

Months later, you release a new product about how to be an affiliate marketer. The people who come to your sales page and buy this product as their first product from you, will see your back list of existing digital info products and want to buy those as well if the quality of the first one they own is up to par.

You can also use your backlist of existing digital info products to build your revenue in other ways. You can use it as a bonus whenever you promote someone else’s product, or you can package them up and offer a bundled discount for a special occasion such as your birthday or a major holiday.

You can’t just quietly create an info product and list it for sale under the radar and expect it to succeed. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and build a buzz for your launch that helps you increase earnings substantially.

Choosing a Topic for Your Product

Choosing the topic for your product can be a daunting experience. Many people procrastinate and delay their launch because every idea they come up with feels wrong. They worry about the fact that the competition has already done something similar.

If you go look on the bookshelves of a major bookseller, you’ll see the same topic being done by multiple authors. Consumers like to have a variety of styles to learn from, and your insight and ability to lead your audience will be completely different from someone else.

Assuming you already have your niche topic, you will want to conduct some research to see what the top problem areas are for that audience. You may want to create a broad digital info product that covers everything as a whole.

If you do this, you won’t be able to go in depth with each subtopic. But that’s okay. You can have a broad overview of the topic with tips in it, followed by a series of in depth and targeted info products on each of the sub topics that go into detail.

For example, you might have and info product called Internet Marketing for Newbies. This would be a broad overview teaching them what it means to be an online marketer, and what opportunities are available to them.

Then, following up in your series, you could have individual info products on each of the topics that you discussed in the original course. You need to conduct some research to find out what the main problem areas are for your niche audience.

The first thing you can do is look at the marketplace to see what is already being sold in your niche. If you are in a niche like weight loss, you may notice a trend for one certain type of diet plan that you can start with.

The next place you can go, after looking at places such as Amazon, ClickBank, Warrior Plus, and JVZoo is to the forums that consumers gather at in your niche. In these forms, people often gather to discuss problems and solutions, as well as products they recommend.

Once you are finished gathering information there, head to a keyword tool of your choice to find out what your target audience is typing in to search engines to find information about.

This will help you compile a list of product ideas for your series as well as the outline for each individual info product that you will be creating. As you conduct your research, make sure you are making a mental note of the comments from buyers or prospective consumers who have felt that something was lacking in the products currently in the marketplace.

You will want to make sure that your info product addresses those needs. You can also make sure to add it to the bulletpoints on your sales page so that the audience knows they will finally have a product that delivers for them.

Media Formats That Sell Well as Info Products

After you have the idea and outline for your digital info product, it will be time to begin creating the content for it. You need to decide what media format you will deliver to your audience.

The two most prevalent media styles for digital info products are text and video. You will have consumers who complain about each one of them. Some people hate to read, and others hate to watch video.

There’s no way to please everyone unless you decide to create a hybrid info product, where you create a set of video modules and pair them with a text transcript in the form of a PDF download.

That way, there is something for everyone. However, this is a time consuming process, so you will have to factor that in when you determine your launch date and how much time you need to create your info product.

You also want to base your decision on what you are good at. For example, you may be a wonderful writer, but struggle with the technology or competence that is needed for the creation of video content.

Luckily, both of these media formats can be learned and improved by you if you are willing to take time to level up. But if you are not, you should pick the media format that you are better at.

The great thing is, you have the ability to polish up anything you create that appears substandard in terms of quality. If you want to create a text eBook as your digital info product, you can always create the content and then outsource it to an editor for the polishing process

If you are not good at creating video, you might want to record the audio portion and hire someone who can create the slides, intro and outro for your professional video modules.

Then, you can simply use a tool such as Camtasia or CamStudio and lay the audio file over the video one to merge the two. Always make sure that you check all of the files for quality control once they are complete.

You may also want to enlist the help of some consumers and give them a free review copy in exchange for honest feedback about what they liked, didn’t like, and what could be improved upon.

This will give you a chance to make changes or edits before the info product goes live to ensure you are releasing a top quality product under your brand. You don’t want to put something on the marketplace that is deemed low quality because it will impact your future sales.

Pick Your Platform and Start Earning

The next step in your digital info product journey is to choose a platform where you want to list your info product. There are many different options available to you. Most people list their product on one of the top three digital product platforms.

The first one would be ClickBank, which has a digital marketplace in many different niches that affiliates can go to in order to find items to promote to their target audience. Or, you might want to consider JVZoo, which also has many different digital products in a variety of niches.

Another popular marketplace is Warrior Plus, which has an easy to use system and a knowledge bank to walk you through it all. If you don’t want to use any of these platforms, you can also choose something like Udemy.

All of these options allow you to have a built in affiliate program so that you can recruit people to promote your info product for you and they will get paid through the system itself.

You also have the ability to gain more attention being listed on one of these sites because they have top ranking pages where you can see what the bestselling products are.

This makes consumers want to own those products, but it also makes affiliates want to promote them because they know the traffic is being converted into sales. You also have potential to be listed on their affiliate launch calendar.

Although these options are nice for the added exposure, they’re not your only choice. You can also install a product such as AMember and launch the product through your own site, with your own built in affiliate system.

This may help you cut down on some of the fees that you have to pay, even though they are usually taken out of each sale rather than something that has to be paid separately. If you choose to simply put up a buy button through PayPal, without any sort of affiliate system, you will be unable to recruit people to promote for you.

Ways to Increase Earnings for Your Launches

You want to earn the most amount of money possible whenever you launch a digital info product. There are strategic ways you can ensure your launch will be able to maximize its revenue.

First and foremost, whenever you are planning your product launch, don’t stop with a single product per launch. You want to have a complete funnel in place that satisfies the consumer’s desire to get several good deals, and meets the requirement of the affiliate to be able to earn enough money to promote.

If you only have a front end product for $9.95, must have filiates will pass up the opportunity to promote that 50% offer of commissions because it’s not enough to make it worth it to them.

However, if you have several upgrade options, which are higher priced at anywhere from $27 to $97, you will have a better chance of recruiting top affiliates. Just make sure that your upgrade offers are complementary to the front end product, without making it appear as if they must own it in order for the front end to work.

This is a common frustration for many consumers of digital info products because the vendor insinuates that unless they buy the upgrades, the entire system they just purchased on the front end will be worthless.

Conduct a bit of background research to find out who the best affiliates are in your niche and then approach each one with a personalized message, a link to your JV (joint venture) page, and a complimentary review copy for them to examine.

Another way that you can increase the earnings with your digital info product launch is to offer additional rights to the product. In most cases, digital content vendors simply release a personal use only license.

This means the buyer can only read, watch, absorb, and use the lessons that are taught in the course. They cannot share or pass them on to other people or claim them as their own.

However, in some cases, you will see a digital info product that has two options on the sales page. The first one is the usual personal use license. But the second one will be and upcharge that allows the buyer to own private label rights to the course.

When they own private label rights, they have the ability to edit and alter the course and put their name on it as the author so that they can resell it. They can’t resell it to others with the same private label rights, but they can sell it with personal use rights for others to read.

Earning money as a digital info product creator is rewarding when you take the steps needed to release a top quality product that both consumers and affiliates will be satisfied with.

You will be building a list of buyers that you can cater to for years to come as you branch out and release additional info products as well as promoting your competitors who release those of their own.

Methods of Making Money Online #4 – Selling Private Label Rights

If you’re looking for a content-based stream of income, which does not rely on you trying to dominate in the search engine results pages or drive a high level of traffic to your site, then you may want to consider getting into the business of becoming a private label rights (PLR) vendor.

Private label rights is a business where you are selling content that you create for other people to buy. It’s similar to a freelance service provider situation, where you would be ghostwriting content or creating graphics or other media formats of content for others and letting them use it as their own.

The only difference between the freelance service provider and a private label rights vendor is that you are selling to multiple buyers over time, as opposed to exchanging hours for a set dollar amount.

If you were ghostwriting for someone, the two of you would agree on a project with a certain number of pages or pieces at a specific price point – but with PLR, you have a product to sell and use in your business and there are no limits to what you can earn with it.

Content Demands Mean PLR Sells Well

If you’re going to become a private label rights seller, you may have worried because you have seen people asking if PLR is dead. They have been asking this for more than two decades.

It’s never a true statement, and the worry is completely unnecessary. In fact, more and more men and women are becoming online entrepreneurs who work from home and who are trying to build their own business.

Because of this fact, they all need content. Many people fail to have the time, expertise, or talent to create content for their niche audience. That’s where you step in. You will be providing them with one piece of the puzzle that helps them complete their online business goals.

While they are working on strategy and networking (as well as other planning elements), you will be creating the products that they will be able to use to attract people to their website, cater to their subscribers, and build a loyal following online.

You may also be the direct resource of the very products that they will be selling and earning a living with. There are many people who find out about a lucrative niche, but they don’t have the leadership to guide an audience themselves.

They will be relying on you to create complete info products that they can use and brand as their own. The great thing about selling private label rights is that when a consumer begins to utilize this type of service and product, they will often keep coming back for years to come.

This is a very convenient, affordable, and easy way for them to cross off a task on their to do list. Content demands never end for an online entrepreneur. They need to post to their blog frequently in an effort to appease search engine bots and prove that they have a fresh website.

They have to do the same when catering to their email subscriber list. They need lead magnets in order to build a list. Not just one lead magnet, but a variety of them so that they can split test and attract subscribers who have different needs.

They also need to have products to sell, scripts for video content they can create or audio podcasts that will help them build an audience, and more. This doesn’t just happen for one day or one week, or even for one year.

It’s a continual process that lasts every day of every year, and it’s what will help them sustain their business growth over time. The second they stop publishing and catering to the needs of their niche, they will fall to the bottom of the marketplace as a more consistent marketer takes the lead.

Start By Picking a Good Topic

When you think about what topics to sell as a PLR vendor, not everything will necessarily be a good option. If you are trying to choose a low traffic topic that has very few products, then you likely will not find many buyers who are willing to pay for content.

That’s because there are not as many competitors and they can rank easily by publishing less often and using their own written words. There are many evergreen topics that you can create PLR packages on that will sell wonderfully again and again.

For example, success or online marketing is a top seller for most PLR vendors. You can also target the same audience with topics such as time management, motivation or inspiration, etc.

Other topics that are highly in demand because they have a huge audience are those such as diet and exercise, stress relief, pets, anti-aging, survival, and more. These aren’t the only topics that will earn you money, however.

For example, there are many real estate agents who need content to bring in clients and customers, but very little PLR that addresses that. They do not have time or sometimes talent to create the content they need for their website, so they look for readymade content from people like you.

You can teach people how to stage their home, how to sell or buy a home, how to you get their finances ready for a mortgage, etc. Don’t dismiss the idea of capitalizing on major trend topics, which may not be evergreen.

Sometimes they are an offshoot of an evergreen topic. For example, survival and prepping is a topic that is thriving online and has been for many years. However, at one time there was an Ebola patient that was brought to America, and sales of that specific niche topic soared as people wanted to know what it meant and how to protect themselves.

When you go to pick a topic for your PLR bundles, you want to look at what has already sold to PLR buyers in the marketplace prior to your launch. You can check sites like Warrior Plus and JVZoo as well as PLR vendor sites directly.

If they are creating ongoing packs about a specific topic, you can bet they are making sales. Another thing you can do is go to sites like Amazon and look for both the tangible products being purchased on the bestsellers list and also look at the book bestseller lists so that you can see which topics are selling well decide if it would be a good fit.

For example, you might find that micro habitats is a topic that is selling well on Amazon, and this would probably make a great slant for work at home entrepreneurs, allowing you to capitalize on the trend.

Create Content They Can Use in Many Places

The purpose for your buyers in purchasing your products is to alleviate their own task list, which often consists of publishing content in a variety of places. The first thing they will want are articles that they can publish to their blog so that their domain begins to rise in the search engine results pages and receive organic traffic.

These can be anywhere from 400 words and up, and many people will pay $2 per page for articles that are longer in length. Another thing they will want to post to their blog are product reviews.

These are especially crucial for tangible product reviews, which have to go on their blog rather than in their email autoresponder, according to some platform rules such as Amazon.

The product reviews that you write can be for both digital and tangible products, and they can post them to their blog, and on social networking sites. Many marketers will be using your product reviews and other forms of content as a script for them to create audio podcasts or YouTube videos.

You want to make sure that they have enough content to nurture their audience via email. List building is one of the most important tasks that a marketer has. Unfortunately, many do not know how to provide value, and that’s where your content can be of use.

You can create individual emails or those that unfold in a series, which will help them maintain subscribers and keep their unsubscribe rate low. They can also use this email series as a lead magnet offer, rather than a simple PDF download that someone can grab and then unsubscribe.

Many PLR vendors also create specific content for a variety of social networking sites. For example, you might find items in a bundle that are specific for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

These might be short snippets of one sentence each that can be tweeted out to their audience, or an infographic or image along with a brief bit of text that can go on another social site, such as Instagram.

Multiple Ways to Earn from PLR Sales

Selling PLR means you have at least four different ways to profit from your business model. Each one gives you a different amount of money in a different timeframe. First, you’ll want to start doing launches for the packs and bundles that you create.

The launch is the first thing that’s done with new PLR because many buyers rush to buy content they can own and use early. So you’ll see a fast influx of sales during your initial launch period, which can be anywhere from 72 hours to a full week.

With a PLR launch, you’ll select your topic, outline what will go into the pack, such as 35 articles or six short lead magnets, for example. You’ll create a joint venture (JV) page detailing the launch and announce it to prospective affiliates.

While affiliates are readying their bonuses and promos, you’ll be working on creating the content. During the launch, if you have recruited top affiliates, you can see anywhere from a few thousand to well over ten thousand dollars come in during that short launch period.

You’ll also be building a list of PLR buyers. Another way to produce income from your PLR sales is by promoting your competitor PLR vendors to the list of buyers you built. Make sure you only promote reputable vendors or you’ll lose their trust.

Once your PLR launch has ended, make sure you put the packages of content on your PLR store. You can use AMember to build a store and leave your content there for sale at full price (as opposed to the discount you offer during the launch).

Your content, if it’s evergreen, will sell for months and years to come. You can recruit affiliates for your store, too – not just your launch. You can offer them coupon codes to give their buyers, too, if you want.

Another way to profit from the PLR you’re selling is to bundle things up once in awhile and sell it at a discount. For example, let’s say you had several bundles on the topic of personal development.

You first launch each one at a discount price of $17. Then they go on your store for the full $35 price tag. After a bit of time has passed, if you want to bundle a few or all of them up into something discounted, you can do that.

So instead of paying $35 per pack, or even $17 per pack, they can get five bundles for $37 – helping them save money and helping you earn some. Never do this right after a launch – this is to be done much later when the content earnings have dwindled.

And lastly, you can earn by using the PLR yourself as content to grow a website, create info products, or use as product review content. Just because you’re selling it to others doesn’t mean you can’t own a license yourself.

Maximizing Your Earnings By Using PLR for Bonus Income

We mentioned previously that you could promote your competitors. Because you’re selling PLR already, you can create packages of private label rights that are reserved exclusively as bonuses for people who buy through your link.

For example, let’s say one of your competitors is having a launch with a three-part funnel of PLR. You want to promote it. You can create a package that never gets launched or goes on your store and increase the odds that people will buy through your link if it’s the only way to get access to it.

You can do this for PLR launches as well as other digital info product launches. Most people buying a digital product would appreciate having some sort of content they can use on their site.

The content you use doesn’t have to be new and exclusive, though. It’s always going to convert better if you do it that way, but you can also tempt people with volume of older content, as long as it’s still relevant and not outdated.

Selling private label rights is a great business model to pursue for an income that provides large spurts of cash as well as a slower growing residual revenue stream. If you can create text, image or video (or even audio in some cases) content, then you should have buyers willing to pay you to do this task for them.

Methods of Making Money Online #5 – Self-Published Author

Maybe you have an idea or a story that you’d like to share with the world. If you’ve ever dreamed of being an author, there’s no better time than right now to achieve that goal. Sure, there are a few things that you need to learn to make it happen, but you can do it.

There are many would-be authors who have never been able to find an agent and get picked up by a publishing house. But self-publishing allowed them to find a rabid and loyal fanbase helped then become a fulltime author.

Taking a non-Traditional Route

Years ago, everything had to be traditional. If you wanted to publish a non-fiction or fiction book, then you had to submit it to a publishing company. Many of these publishing companies wouldn’t even look at a manuscript if it didn’t come through a literary agent.

Literary agents were extremely selective in the clients that they took on. Some writers were refused – not because the quality of the writing was bad – but because the publisher or agent had already taken on a book that had a similar theme.

Many would-be writers gave up on the thought of publishing anything because it was just too difficult to break through. That’s sad, because there are no doubt many great stories that were lost due to the power of the traditional route of publishing.

There’s a lot to be said for traditions. But not all of them are good if they keep your dreams from coming true. When you have an idea or a story to be told, you deserve the chance to bring it to life – to get it into the hands of readers.

There are so many people that you can entertain or that you can help with your knowledge. Now, more than ever, it’s a lot easier to get published. You don’t have to bide your time and wait for a publisher to accept you.

You don’t have to send out queries and hope a literary agent will pay attention and want to sign you. If you want to become a published author, you just need to make the decision that it’s what you want.

Yes, it really is that easy. You may have seen the prestigious lists that showcase traditionally published books. The New York Time’s Bestseller list routinely mentions the books that sell well.

So does the USA Today bestseller list. If you’re like some people, then you probably think that hitting either one of these lists is something that’s reserved solely for those in traditional publishing.

But that’s not true any longer. You don’t have to go through a publisher to get your book on a list. There are certain criteria that does have to be met, which is basically that you need to sell a number of books in order to be considered a bestseller.

But that’s really not as hard to do as you might think it is. Plus there are numerous steps that you can take to make sure your book is one that sells well. So if you have a book in you that you want to get out, now’s the time to make that happen.

And the good news is that you can take a non-traditional route to publishing whether you write fiction books or non-fiction books.

Learning Your Craft Means More Than Just Writing

The first piece of advice you may hear about writing is to learn your craft. What that basically means is that you need to know what you should do in order to tell a good story.

But it’s not just about the writing. It’s also about selling. The more that you learn about the art of writing and selling that writing, the more money you’ll make and the better your book will be received by readers and reviewers.

As a self-published author, it’s going to be up to you to make sure your book sells. But that doesn’t mean that you have to reinvent the wheel. There are already so many ways that you can get your book in front of an audience.

You need to make sure you have a strong online presence. This means you have social media accounts that you update regularly. Each social media platform has ways that you can use them to promote your book.

Part of your online presence means having a website or blog where people can visit to find more information about your current books, upcoming books, etc. You want to be sure that your book blurbs are spot on.

The best way to write a blurb is to write one that’s geared toward your genre. For example, if you’re writing suspense, go look on Amazon’s top 100 bestselling books in that category.

Study how those blurbs are done. What you’ll usually find across all the genres is that the blurb introduces the main character, the trope or inciting event and the conflict. You should also learn how to use ads to market your book.

There are low-key or free places you can use to place ads, such as with sites that are open to self-published authors. These might be places like blogs with decent followings, influencer’s social media platforms, etc.

But you can buy ads on places such as Amazon. A word of caution: don’t just slap up an ad and hope it does well to advertise your book. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re wasting your money.

Learn how to do Amazon ads. That means you should know your target audience. You should understand and use relevant keywords. You need to know how to analyze your ad campaign to see what’s working.

You can also advertise on Facebook. You can set up your author page and then create your ad campaign. Though the site will walk you through it step by step, just like with Amazon, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you need to learn.

Otherwise, you’ll waste your hard-earned dollars. You can find free tutorials on ads for authors simply by doing an online search. Branding is something else that you need to learn about the craft.

This is a term that just means it’s what your readers can know or expect from one of your books. For example, if you’ve built a readership by writing sexy or steamy novels, it would be out of your branding to suddenly introduce a sweet novel.

When an audience of readers sees your name on the cover of a book, they know exactly what kind of story they’re in for. Across your books, you may have similar colors, fonts or book covers as part of your branding. It’s something that unites your books.

Writing to Market and Editing for Success

There’s a lot of confusion about writing to market and exactly what it is. Some writers think it means you have to write books that you don’t enjoy writing. That’s not true. You can write what you want.

When you write a book to market it only means that you’re writing a story that has a market or audience that wants to read that story and you’re meeting their expectations. This market is already there and it’s found in the type of genre you write in.

For example, you might write in the romance genre. If you look on Amazon under that genre, you’ll find it broken down into subcategories. These can be ones like romantic fantasy, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, etc.

Sometimes categories are listed by a trope such as “holiday romance.” When you’re writing to market, what you want to do is locate your main genre’s top 100, then drill down to the stats on the books that are the top sellers in that genre.

You’re paying attention to the book ranking because it will tell you if that category is oversaturated or not or if there’s a market or not. The less saturated a market, the less books you have to sell to hit Amazon’s top 100 list in your category.

What you want to find is the spot where there’s a market for your book, but not necessarily one where you wouldn’t be able to stand out. Writing to market means that in any given genre, your audience wants something specific.

For example, in paranormal romance, you’ll find that shapeshifters are a hot seller.

Now if you were to write something totally obscure like penguin shapeshifters, more than likely, you’ll find there’s no market for that.

So first, find the genre you enjoy writing in and then look at what’s selling in that genre. Look through the subcategories to find one that you feel best suits you. Once your book is written, it must be edited.

If you’re starting your career as a self-published author and there’s just no budget to hire an editor, you can either read the manuscript aloud to yourself – which helps to catch mistakes – or you can find beta readers.

You can find beta readers to help catch typos and grammar mistakes in your book in groups that you can find on Facebook. Just keep in mind they’re spending their time for free to help you with your book, so they’re doing you a favor.

Be polite and professional even if they don’t like your book. You should never turn in a first draft to an editor or beta reader. Edit the manuscript yourself by giving it at least one pass to check for consistency, plot holes, typos and grammar issues.

If you can afford to outsource to an editor, you’ll want to choose the type of editing that’s most needed for your manuscript. If you have a good grasp on sentence structure and you’re great at spelling, then odds are you probably don’t need a copyeditor or a proofreader.

What you may need is a developmental edit. This is when an editor looks at the entire book. He or she will check the pacing of the book, the emotional growth of the characters, conflict, the dialogue, and more to make sure everything is well done and balanced out. If you’re new to writing, you may benefit most from getting a developmental edit.

Picking the Right Platforms to Publish On

There are plenty of platforms to put your book on. Some authors stick to one, while others put them on several. This is a practice known as going wide. One of the easiest platforms to use is Amazon’s Kindle publishing.

Amazon is one of the first places that comes to mind when it comes to self-publishing. That’s because Amazon has a huge audience reach and actively promotes the books on their site.

Plus, if you choose to, you can upload both eBook and print versions of your manuscript on the site. The amount of royalties you can earn will depend on the price you set for the book as well as whether or not you set it up for the book to be exclusive to Amazon.

While you earn more royalties if you do that and may get better advertising from the site, if your book is pulled for any reason, then all of a sudden that income is gone. This is why many authors don’t put all their financial eggs in one basket and choose to go wide.

Another platform you can use to publish your book is Apple Books. It’s a simple step by step process to upload your book to the site. You can upload your book in something like Draft2Digital, which is a publishing aggregator.

This is a service where you upload your book in the site and in turn, it handles the distribution of your book to various platforms so that you don’t have to do all the work.

You can also sell your book through Ingram.

This is a site that can also distribute your book. Many self-published authors also use Kobo. All you have to do is upload your manuscript. You can choose the price, line up pre-orders and the site adds your book to their list of books for sale.

You do not have to be exclusive with Kobo, so you can choose to use multiple platforms to sell your books. Barnes & Noble is another platform for self-published authors to use. Their site is called Barnes & Noble Press.

To put your book on the site is similar to how you would do it on Kobo. You upload it and choose the pricing. Barnes & Noble will showcase your book using their marketing materials, such as their promotional emails.

Whichever platform you choose to use, you’ll have to make sure that you understand the terms of service, because violating it will get you kicked off the platform. Since percentages that each platform takes can vary, you’ll also want to make sure you set your price point to earn the amount of royalties you want to get after the platform’s cut.

Following Up Your Success with a Series

If you choose to, you can write a standalone book. Sometimes a standalone book takes off and does well financially and helps make the author a recognizable name among readers.

However, a book series can bring in more success, especially financially when they’re done right. Some self-published authors earn six figures by writing a series. A series can become part of your brand.

For example, if you write multiple books in a series about a detective, that detective series becomes what you’re widely known for. When readers get hooked with book one and love the character, they’re going to want the rest of the books in the series.

They become a fan and they want more to keep feeding their hunger for the world or the character. By creating a series, you’re building what’s known as a backlist. For example, let’s say you’re now writing book seven in a series.

Books one through six are known as your backlist. You can use book seven to promote your backlist simply by talking about it in the back of the book when you’re linking readers to your website or social media sites.

In books one through six, at the back of the book, you can offer a taste of the next book in the series as a way of hooking the reader in. When they read the first chapter of the next book that you show in the previous book, they want to continue the series.

You don’t have to stick to just one series, either. You can have multiple series. If you find that at the end of the series, readers are asking what happened before the characters came to life in book one, you can go back and write a prequel book and readers will buy that too.

The great thing about writing a series is that one book can hook your readers all the way through. Each series that you write stands to earn you more in royalties because readers will go through and buy them all at once.

Plus, you can take each series if you choose to and put them in what’s known as a box set. This is when you bundle the books and instead of selling them individually, you sell them lumped together for one price.

You stand to make more money in royalties that way. Readers love feeling like they get more for their money. What you have to keep in mind is that readers don’t like waiting forever in order to get the next book in a series.

So write ahead. That means you should wait until you have more than one book in a series before you upload it to any platform. Many self-published writers wait until they have three books already written and ready to go.

They create a publishing calendar and stick to it. It can be something like a book every two months or whatever you can handle. If you choose to write a series, use a planner of some kind to keep track of all of your characters, timelines, world building, publishing schedule (including pre-order dates) and marketing.

Methods of Making Money Online #6 – Social Media Influencer

One of the fairly newer business models that has solidified in recent years as a specific career option is that of a social media influencer. There have always been individuals, primarily celebrities, who have attracted the attention of brands and been gifted free products in exchange for a mention of them in public.

But now, anyone who can build a social following has the potential to become and influencer and build a formidable business out of their efforts. This can be done on almost any social media platform – including sites and apps like Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube and more.

With social media influencing, it’s a little harder to nail down the exact monetary compensation you might enjoy with this career. It will vary based on the niche, the number of followers you have, and the products that you are discussing.

However, what starts on a small scale may grow into a product empire of your own, if past success of other social media influencers is anything like your own path. Once you understand what makes a brand want to invest in your social media marketing, you will be able to expand those efforts and duplicate them so that you maximize your earnings.

What Is an Influencer?

A social media influencer is a person or account that has achieved a level of recognition due to their ability to persuade their followers to want to wear what they wear, eat what they eat, listen to what they listen to, and more.

This is a very aesthetic and socially engaging career. It took off primarily on Instagram, which is a social media site and app based on images, and later video. Some of the influencers developed a following that exploded almost overnight based on a few strategic posts.

This is almost identical to the business model of affiliate marketing, in regards to the way someone has to become a leader and guide in a niche in order to be able to make recommendations that are high converters.

When you decide to become a social media influencer, you need to know exactly what performs well on the social app or site that you intend on using. You need to study the images or videos to see what the aesthetic and technical details are like, including the length of videos.

Because these tools are often changing, you will be required to stay on top of the features that are released so that you can be one of the early users of whatever is new to the platform.

Becoming a Brand Ambassador

There are many social media influencers who start out as simple brand ambassadors. As your account begins to grow, you will have many different brands reach out to you wanting you to use their products or mention them in a good light to help bring about awareness of their products.

The payment for this type of online career can be anything from being gifted free products to earning a salary of up to $50,000 per year. Some brand ambassadors don’t just use their online platforms to create messaging for the company, but also represent the brand at special offline events.

When you set out to become a brand ambassador, make sure you become known for one major thing. Whether it’s beauty products or fitness, cooking or something else – build your channel and account around that topic.

Work on creating an aesthetic or style for your account that is easily recognizable. You don’t want to have a mix of content that doesn’t match well. If you want to, you can leverage the influence of others, too.

Using certain sites like Tik Tok, you can duet or stitch your video with that of someone else. A duet is a side-by-side video (or above/below), while a stitch starts out with one video, and then leads into the other person’s.

This can lead to some strategic collaborations if both audiences like the two of you working together. Just make sure you watch comments to see what the reactions are from the audience.

You can have guests on your channel to help with content creation. People love it when their favorite social media influencers crossover into other accounts. Just be strategic with who you do this with.

Bringing in Affiliate Influencer Income

The great thing about affiliate influencer careers is that it’s often built in a very natural and organic way. Oftentimes, the individuals who achieve influencer status are simply showcasing how they are living their life, and the way in which they do it attracts an audience that wants to mimic them.

You will be able to create posts, stories, and videos to attract and cater to the target audience that brands are hoping to reach. You want to have a voice and personality with your account, not simply say whatever a company has you read.

Make sure you are paying attention to trends that are happening on whatever social media site or app you are using. For example, on Tik Tok, there are certain sounds you can use that will be popular one day or a week.

When you use that song or sound in your own content, others can find it by looking at all of the videos using that particular sound. You can tailor your message to fit a brand’s request and capitalize on the popularity of the trend at the same time.

When your posts begin to show great success and engagement for the brand, they will be more likely to hire you again and pay more the next time. So do your best to achieve organic results and never try to game the system with false followers or engagement they might be able to discover.

You’ll often see “follow and I’ll follow back” requests in the comments section of your posts. Never agree to these. These people will follow you, get you to follow them, and then unfollow you.

It’s better to focus on creating value-based, unique and original content that your target audience enjoys and attract a genuine following of people who like the type of content you’re putting out.

There are some influencer positions you can apply for with companies and brands, but most will seek you out. They will contact you via private message or direct message with an offer or opening discussion.

Consistency with your posts will be key to your success. You can’t expect to be paid as a social media influencer if you’re constantly abandoning your audience and only showing up whenever you feel like it.

This should be treated like a fulltime career, and ideally, you’ll be posting at least once per day, if not more. You have to take into consideration the time it requires to edit, post and share your content with others, making sure you use the right keywords or hashtags to help your content get found.

If you need to create any graphics for your channel or account, you can either do it yourself using tools like Canva, or outsource it to other individuals who work as freelancers on sites like Fiverr.

Charging for Sponsored Ads

Charli D’Amelio is a good example of someone who earns a great deal of money from sponsored ads as a social media influencer. What started out as a fun Tik Tok account of lip syncing songs and dancing, has transformed into a business, TV show, and a lot of sponsored revenue.

She is the most followed creator on the app, and brought in over $4 million on her very first year as a Tik Tokker. Brands like Dunkin’, EOS Cosmetics, and Hollister pay her money for sponsored ads.

Understand that you’re not going to land a major account like these right off the bat. It takes time to grow your account to the place where brands would be interested in paying you money to mention their name.

So do some research about which brands in your niche deal with social influencers and then work to strategically land the smallest account, first. As other (bigger) brands see that you’re being hired and that your posts are working to increase brand awareness and sales, they’ll be more willing to take a look at what you can do for them.

You can find partners to work with if no one is approaching you by using services like Valued Voice. Here, you can create a profile and showcase your accounts. You’ll pick categories and what you charge to promote.

Brands can find your listing there, check out your channels, and contact you for a possible promotion opportunity. These platforms are typically free to use and they will take a small portion of the agreed upon price.

When you get a sponsor, you can create videos or take pictures of you using the product. Make sure you use the hashtags related to the product and come up with a good caption for it.

Partnering with Others for Income

From time to time, you will be approached with the offer to collaborate with another social media influencer. Sometimes, there are automated bot accounts that comment on your posts, but other times they will be genuine collaboration offers that may work out well for you.

You have to be careful about who you partner up with, because if they become known for anything unsavory, that may taint your reputation in the social stratosphere. Make sure you do adequate research beforehand about the other person prior to sealing any kind of deal with them.

There are some scams involving collaborations or social media ambassador positions, where they will ask you to purchase the product up front, and they will reimburse you at a later date (or so they say).

You never want to pay for a product that someone else is asking you to promote. If they want you to mention it, it needs to be gifted to you so that you can make an informed decision about it before you discuss it with your followers.

Embarking on a Product Creation Path

When your account grows substantially, you’ll want to consider creating products of your own. You can quickly and easily use online tools to create print on demand products like t-shirts, and also write and self-publish a book.

If you’re doing something like a beauty or skincare line, you can work with a company that can formulate it and design a product brand for you based on your name recognition.

If you want to see what some of the top social media influencers are doing with their accounts, you may want to check out individuals like Addison Rae, Khaby Lame, or Huda Beauty.

All of these have found influencer success and have companies and brands reaching out to them, or have created their own products based on the response they garnered on social media.

James Charles and Jeffree Star are two men who embarked on beauty influencing journeys. Both created their own product line of cosmetics, which were showcased in major retailers and allowed them to rake in over $22-200 million.

These two have both experienced drama and public “cancellations” due to previous or current behavior, but not before each earned millions to fund their lavish lifestyles and purchase mansions.

Keep in mind that social media stars will often be dragged into drama and situations that others will enjoy, so steer clear of any negative interactions with others. Brands won’t want to hire you – and consumers won’t buy your products – if they see you as tainted.

Addison Rae and Charli D’Amelio both have products, ranging from beauty to fashion. Emma Chamberlain has a coffee line, since she was frequently seen with a cup of coffee in her online social media posts.

Social media shows no signs of slowing down at this point. YouTube is the second largest search engine in existence. Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok see billions of users every month, followed by the popularity of Snapchat.

Keep an eye on the development of future social media so that you can create and position yourself on the site or app early on in its development. If you are using this strategy to create a career, you want to immerse yourself in everything there is to know about the social media platform you intend to use.

Becoming a social media influencer can be a fun and exciting journey. Not only do you get to inform and educate your audience, but you get to do so in a way that allows you to be creative and showcase your personality.

Don’t worry about any haters who try to stir up negative emotions in you along the way. This is to be expected and engaging with trolls only makes you look foolish, and will attract more of the same.

Why Freelance Writers Should Sign Up for Medium

Find out all the great reasons why freelance writers should sign up for Medium. It’s the perfect platform to start publishing your work and make money.

Freelance Writers Should Be Writing On Medium

Whether you’re just starting your freelance writing journey or you’ve been at it for a while, writing on Medium has countless benefits. It’s free to join and start creating, and you can also monetize your account by joining the Medium Partner Program. Become part of a diverse, global community of writers, hone your skills, and develop your own unique style.

Medium is much more than a way to make money from your writing. It helps you form a writing routine, allows you to explore writing about a wide variety of topics, and gives you a way to interact with fellow writers.

In addition to being an exceptional writing platform, Medium is also a place where you can gain inspiration by delving into any subject that interests you. Keep reading to find out why freelance writers should sign up for Medium.

Why Should Freelance Writers Sign Up for Medium?

Many of us dream of writing on what we’re passionate about and making money at the same time. When you start publishing your writing on Medium, you’ll be able to do just that.

Medium is an excellent platform for experimenting with your writing style. It also allows you to track your engagement stats, so you’re able to see what worked well and where you can improve.

When you publish your work through the Medium Partner Program, you get paid based on the number of reads your piece gets. That way, your published content keeps earning money for you.

Take advantage of other writers’ expertise and use Medium as a source for doing your research and learning about your target audience. In addition, you can often get feedback on your work from fellow writers.

If you’ve been waiting for the right sign that it’s time to launch your freelance writing career, this is it. And Medium is the perfect place to get started.

Expand Your Portfolio

Have you just accomplished a career change to writing and don’t have much (or any) work published yet? Or maybe you’re ghostwriting and can’t tell people who you’re currently writing for.

Medium gives you a place to store and organize your work while getting it in front of an audience. It’s a zero-risk way to start putting yourself and your writing out there.

You’ll soon build a following and gain more exposure by consistently posting your work. Having an easily accessible portfolio of quality pieces will set you up for success when you’re ready to start pitching to more prominent publications, both on and off Medium.

Establish Credibility as a Writer

As you continue developing your portfolio on Medium, you’re building credibility and establishing yourself as an authority in your chosen niches. The more regularly you write, the faster you’ll learn what elements make an attention-grabbing article that holds readers’ attention.

Another advantage of the Medium platform is the opportunity for others to interact with your posts and vice versa. Getting claps and comments on your writing is a wonderful feeling.

If you already have your own blog, Medium makes it easy to import posts you’ve published elsewhere. It’s a great way to promote your site by including backlinks in your Medium posts and encouraging your audience to discover more valuable content on your blog.

Learn What to Write and Explore Various Niches

When first embarking on your freelance writing journey, it’s sometimes challenging to decide what you want to write about. On Medium, you’re free to write about your various interests and passions.

Over time, you’ll refine your skills and find out which styles and techniques work best for you. Take advantage of others’ knowledge and use your fellow Medium writers as a resource. Read articles in your areas of interest and research ways to improve your writing routine. 

Join a Worldwide Community of Writers

Many new freelance writers find a welcoming and supportive community when they join Medium. It’s a place where creative, enthusiastic, and like-minded people from across the globe come together to share their knowledge and ideas.

Experienced authors and publishers are often willing to provide feedback on your writing if you reach out to them. Or, consider signing up for a writing course from one of your favorite Medium experts.

By gaining a following on Medium, you’ll have a keen audience when you’re ready to start promoting your services or products. For example, if you’re interested in selling coaching or consulting services or designing an online course, it’s beneficial to have already proven your expertise through your writing. Your Medium readers can also provide an additional marketing source at no extra cost.

There are countless compelling reasons why freelance writers should sign up for Medium. It goes beyond making money and diversifying your income as a freelancer. From gaining valuable writing experience to broadening your portfolio and increasing your readership, becoming a published writer on Medium will take your freelance writing career to the next level.

30 Day Start-Up Action Plan for Affiliate Marketing

If you’re considering affiliate marketing in the new year, this post is for you! In it, you’ll find a 30 Day Start-Up Action Plan for Affiliate Marketing.

30 Day Start-Up Action Steps for Affiliates

Starting an online business as an affiliate marketer is one of the easiest ways to get started earning money on the Internet. You don’t have to take the time or effort to create your own products, recruit affiliates for them, and go through all of the launch task details.

Instead, you get to hit the ground running with easy content that helps guide consumers to the products that will serve as solutions to their problems. In exchange for your advice, when the customer purchases from the vendor, you will be paid a commission.

The only problem facing most newbie affiliate marketers is that they are given a broad overview of what to do. What you need is a daily action step to implement so that by the end of a 30 day period, you are beginning to consistently publish product reviews that will bring in money.

The steps listed below are grouped into the span of five weeks, with a day off to do as you please. Feel free to accomplish more than one task per day, if you have time – or, stretch it out a little longer if you feel the need to.

Week 1: Research Tasks and Decision Time

During the first week of your affiliate marketing start-up plans, you will be taking care of an aspect of business building that many fail to do. Instead, they jump right into the content creation step, hoping to rake in overnight profits.

Because they didn’t take the time to create a foundation that will perform well in their niche, they will be left confused when they fail to get traffic and conversions with their product reviews.

Day 1 – Take a Day to Read Affiliate Reviews

On day one, you want to go online and begin researching a variety of niche affiliate review blogs. You need to look at those that review products on a broad scale, as well as for narrow niche topics.

Make some mental notes to yourself about how you feel about the quality of these reviews. If you notice anything is lacking, jot that down. If anything sticks out that impresses you, make a note of that as well.

Pay attention to everything about the affiliate review. It’s not just about the words that are written, it’s about the layout of the information, the white space, images that are used, the call to action, and more.

Day 2 – Spend This Day Watching Review Videos

On day two, you are going to continue analyzing other affiliates’ reviews, but this time you are going to specifically immerse yourself in video reviews. Even if you currently have no plans to utilize a multimedia approach, it’s important that you see how it’s being done because this is what will be competing with you if you are only using text.

You need to pay specific attention to how the video is being shot. Is the reviewer on camera, or you can you only see the product itself? Make a note about how long video reviews are generally in your potential niches. Look for forms of engagement, such as the number of likes or comments that a video has, too.

Day 3 – Research Your Tangible Monetization Options

On day three, you will take some time to research tangible commission opportunities for the various niche markets that you are considering. You can look on sites such as Amazon, Share a Sale, in Commission Junction.

You can also look on Google to find direct affiliate programs for vendors and manufacturers. For example, if one of the niches you are considering is survival, you can type in survival food affiliate program and besides being able to promote this type of product on Amazon, you may find companies who have a program that pays you directly.

Day 4 – See What Digital Products You Could Promote

On day four, you want to do the same thing you did on day three, only with digital info products. You are looking for both quality and quantity, to ensure that there are enough solid products on the marketplace for you to promote.

For digital products, you might look on sites like ClickBank, Warrior Plus, JVZoo, and Udemy. Not only are you looking for courses, but sometimes you will find tools that you can review of a digital nature.

Day 5 – Make the Commitment to a Niche

On day five, you want to spend some time weighing the pros and cons of each of the niche markets that you were considering. By the end of the day, make a final decision on which niche you plan to attempt to make money with.

Day 6 – Find a Keyword-Rich Domain Name

On day six, conduct some basic keyword research and began mixing and matching the words until you come up with an available domain name that makes sense for your brand.

Make sure you invest in a dot com domain so that you are utilizing the extension that most consumers automatically type in when they are trying to reach a site. You don’t want a competitor to scoop up this extension if it becomes available and you have a different one.

Week 2: Setting Up Your Affiliate Site

Week two of this journey is when you will go through the technical set up steps to make your affiliate website go live. There are many online tutorials that will show you a step-by-step process of how to do these steps, but let’s go over the order in which they should take place and what needs to happen.

Day 7 – Set Up Your Hosting Account

You already have your domain so, so it’s time for you to register for a hosting account. With a single affiliate site to begin with, you don’t need a big plan. You can always level up with your hosting at any time if you intend to branch out and grow your business.

Day 8 – Install WordPress for Your Review Blog

Once your hosting is set up, go through the simple steps to install WordPress on your domain where your review blog will be housed. This is a quick and easy process, where you will enter some contact details and then let the system handle the installation.

Day 9 – Go Through Your Settings and Plugins

On day nine, you will revisit the dashboard of your WordPress blog and go down the left sidebar through each option so that you can ensure it is set up the way you want it to be.

If there are any plugins that you want to use to help you with search engine optimization or socialization, you can install and activate those at this time. Make sure that every time you install a plug-in, and make it not work.

Day 10 – Pick a Theme and Professional Design

Day ten is when you get to choose how your affiliate review blog will look to others. If budget is not an issue, then you can pay for a professional theme. But keep in mind there are plenty of free WordPress themes that you can download and use on your site.

If you want to brand your online business as an affiliate, you can outsource the creation of site graphics, such as your header. If you don’t know how to do this professionally, it’s always better to hand it over to someone else so that your site doesn’t reflect the work of an amateur.

Day 11 – Create the Proper Affiliate Pages

On this day, you will be setting up any pages that you want on your blog. Pages are different from posts, and they often show up at the top of your website, Right below the header.

Some of the pages you may want to create include an About page, a Contact page, and any pages that are required by any of the affiliate platforms you will be sending traffic to that identify you as an affiliate who earns a commission if they buy through that link.

Day 12 – Categorize Your Upcoming Reviews

Today, you will be creating the categories for your review site. These are the subtopics where you will assign each product review so that when a human or search bot arrives on your domain, they can easily navigate to the content they most want to see.

For example, if you are in the anti-aging niche, you would have categories such as skin care, mobility, finances, socialization, fitness, etc. If someone lands on your site, and they only want to read about your skin care advice, they should be able to click the category and easily see all of your content that is relevant to that topic.

Week 3: Set Up Your List Building Strategy

During week three, you will be taking the steps to ensure that you are able to contact the visitors to your site time and time again. The best way to do that is to build a list, and there are several steps involved in doing this.

Day 13 – Create a Lead Magnet Worth Subscribing For

This process starts with the creation of a lead magnet. This is your free gift that you offer to visitors in exchange for their name and email address. In order to build a list that rakes in money, you want to have a lead magnet that is irresistible. Take time to create one that wows your audience.

Day 14 – Analyze Several Email Autoresponders

Once it is created, do some research on the various email autoresponder systems that are on the market and choose one that you feel will work best for your needs. As a rule of thumb, it’s always best to go with one that has a proven track record so that you don’t lose all of your leads when a shady vendor quits supporting the too good to be true autoresponder system they created.

Day 15 – Sign Up for One and Create a List

On day fifteen, make your final decision about which autoresponder you will go with and sign up with the company. You will then create your very first list and give it a name. Make sure it is identifiable by the site and niche you have chosen so that on a later date, if you add another niche market to your autoresponder system, you will have no problem differentiating between the two.

Day 16 – Write Your Welcome Email

On this day, you will write your welcome email to those who sign up for your list. Your welcome email should detail a little about how you run your list, it should thank them for signing up, and it should deliver a link to your free opt in offer that was promised.

Day 17 – Grab Your Form Code and Install It on Your Blog

The next day, log into your email autoresponder system and go through the steps to create a form. When you get to the end and have finished designing it, you will copy the code it’s spits out and install it on your blog.

Day 18 – Test Your Autoresponder

Before you end all of your list building activities, you want to use the 18th day to test your autoresponder and make sure that it is working properly. If your welcome email includes the link to your freebie, make sure you test it and make sure that it works.

Week 4: Put Yourself on a Publishing Schedule

Week four for a new affiliate consists of ironing out your upcoming publishing schedule. This will determine what types of topics are published and on what day. It helps you space product reviews out and fill the gaps with niche value.

Day 19 – Pick 15 Tangible Products You’ll Be Reviewing

On day nineteen, you should go through and pick 15 tangible products that you want to review on your blog. Look for products that have the right price point for you to earn a decent commission and consider whether or not you want to write thorough reviews about a single product or deliver brief spiels about a top ten list of products.

Day 20 – Pick 15 Digital Products You’ll Be Reviewing

You are almost finished with your tasks at this point. Take today to select 15 digital products that you want to review for your blog. These can be a mix of info products that inform someone, coaching programs, memberships, or even digital tools.

Day 21 – Plan Time for Research and Information Gathering

On day twenty-one, spend the day gathering the research you need for your reviews. You can put the information in a swipe file that you can refer to as you write your review from scratch, so that you don’t have to revisit the product listing every time you want to learn more.

Day 22 – Order Products or Request Review Copies

On day 22, make a decision about which tangible products and digital products you want to personally invest in for your review process. You may not be able to afford to buy every single product for every review.

For the digital products that you are reviewing, you can either buy those or request a review copy from the vendor, if they are willing to give it. While they may say no initially, as your brand grows, they may be more willing to provide that at no charge.

Day 23 – Determine Which Reviews Will Have Multimedia

On day 23, figure out what media format you are going to use for each review. They don’t all have to be the same. You may have a text only review for some products, while others you devote to a video review.

This might be especially helpful if you have a product that you purchased and you want to conduct an unboxing video, which is popular among affiliate marketers using YouTube.

Day 24 – Assign a Publishing Date for Each Product Review

On the last day of week four, you want to go through your list of tangible and digital products and assign a publishing date for a review of that item. If you have chosen products from a variety of categories, this will help you prevent a repetitive pattern where you only review certain items for long stretches.

Week 5: Get the Reviews Ready and Send Traffic to Them

You are in the homestretch now! Week five is when everything begins to happen. You still have some decisions to make, but you will begin to see traction after your reviews go live on your blog.

Day 25 – Decide If You Want to Create or Outsource Your Reviews

On this day, you need to decide if you have the time and talent to write these product reviews yourself or if you need to outsource them to a freelance service provider to do the job for you.

Day 26 – Create a Template for How the Reviews Should Unfold

Regardless of whether you do it, or you have someone else create them, it may be helpful to whip up a template for how you want your reviews to unfold. You may have seen a certain style that impressed you early on in your research, and you can weave some of those elements into your own affiliate review template.

Day 27 – Carry Out the Product Review Process

At this time, you want to begin creating the product reviews that will go on your blog. Because you have already conducted all of the research, this should be a quick and easy job.

Make sure you add personalization to your reviews so that you develop a loyal following and fanbase who rely on your recommendations for their upcoming purchases. This is an ongoing step.

Every affiliate is different in terms of how much content they can get done in a single day. Some affiliates can barely eke out a single article, while others can whip up 20 to 40 pages per day.

If you have outsourced the content, make sure you go over it with a fine tooth comb so that you can spot any obvious misinformation, typos, or other errors. Be sure and run the review through Copyscape to ensure the content has not been ripped off.

Day 28 – Begin Queuing Up the Reviews to Drip Publish to Your Blog

On day 28, you can take the product reviews that are ready and queue them up in your blog so that they automatically publish for you over a period of time. You could choose to publish daily, a couple of times per week, or whatever works best for you.

However, if you want to develop a thriving affiliate review blog, you will need to be competitive with the consistency that you show in delivering fresh information to your target audience.

Day 29 – Write Emails to Your List Sharing the Review Links

On day 29, you want to create emails that will drip out to your subscribers on the same day that the product review goes live on your blog. Instead of having to wait for organic traffic, you will be sending people there to consume the information and also share it on social media.

Day 30 – Go to Applicable Social Networking Sites and Share the Links

On the last day of your startup action steps, you want to get in the habit of taking the link from your blog where you reviewed a product and share it on a variety of social networking sites.

For example, you might want to share it in a group that you have built on Facebook, in the description of a YouTube video that you create, or as the link in your bio on apps like Instagram and Tik Tok.

30 Day Start-Up Action Plan for New Info Product Creators

Thinking about launching an info product in the coming year? In this post, I’m sharing a 30 Day Start-Up Action Plan for New Info Product Creators.

30 Day Start-Up Action Steps for New Info Product Creators

If you’ve dreamed of having a work at home career as an online entrepreneur, you may want to consider the role of a digital info product creator. Digital courses have long been in high-demand, and consumers keep shopping for them.

No matter which niche you’re in, there’s a strong likelihood that there’s a need for instant and downloadable courses that can inform, educate and guide users in the best way to achieve a certain goal or find a solution to a problem.

Below, you’ll find a simple, 30 day action plan where you’re given one task per day to completion each week, with a single day off to rest. If you feel like doubling up on a few tasks, you can complete it sooner.

Week 1: Analyzing the Marketplace to See What’s Selling

Before you can begin a career as an online digital vendor, you need to know what consumers are purchasing in the marketplace so that you can ensure that your product stacks up to the very best.

Day 1 – Visit ClickBank to Check Out the Bestsellers

The first stop you may want to make is to ClickBank. This is an online digital and tangible marketplace for products in a wide variety of niches. They are a little more strict in what they allow, but this is a good thing because consumers feel a sense of safety.

Go to the marketplace and look at the categories on the left hand side that may match your niche. You will be able to see what is ranking as a bestseller, what the price points are, and how many affiliates are earning money promoting the software based on the gravity statistic.

Day 2 – Take a Look at Warrior Plus to Find Out What’s Hot

Warrior Plus is another digital marketplace that you will want to visit to see how products are ranking in terms of popularity among consumers and affiliates alike. Here, you can actually look at how a funnel unfolds in terms of what is presented and in what order, along with the price points.

Day 3 – Check Out JVZoo to See What’s In-Demand

Next, go to JVZoo and to see what is in demand on that digital marketplace. you can look at both current and past product launches to see how many were sold and what the conversion rate was.

Day 4 – Look on Udemy for Courses That Sell Well

You can also go to Udemy and see which courses people are buying and ranking well. Under the listing, you will be able to see the price point of the course, a short description, its star rating, and the total number of hours and number of lectures included.

Day 5 – Head Over to Amazon to See What’s Popular

Make sure you also check out Amazon’s bestselling book list. You can specifically look at your niche topic and see what patterns you notice about popular topics, such as mindset or habit changing.

Day 6 – Look on Social Media to See What the Chatter Is

Social networking sites and apps, as well as forums, will have consumers actively engaging in discussions about their problems that they’re seeking solutions and advice for. This will help ensure you’re meeting the needs of the consumers who you want to buy your upcoming product.

Week 2: Mapping Out Your Info Product

Once you have some ideas about what the marketplace is demanding, you will want to start the process of mapping out an info product of your own. You never need to worry about a topic having been done before.

The only thing you need to focus on is that you deliver value and accurate information to your customers. Even if you are teaching the exact same thing as someone else, they may have a personal preference for you as a teacher or for the media format that you are using.

Day 7 – Come Up with a Slant for Your Product

The first thing you want to do is come up with an overall slant for your product. For example, if you are teaching the topic of blogging, you may have slants such as blogging for seniors or mommy bloggers, or blogging as a side hustle for extra income.

Day 8 – Break the Topic Up Into Sub-Topics

Next, create an outline for your overall product. Make a list of all of the main things that you want to teach in your course. If you want to, you can also create a list of what will go in each of those sections or modules.

Day 9 – Consider What Media Format to Use

On day nine, you will be tasked with making the decision of which media format you feel will work best for your target audience. If you use text, and you need to show steps, you will have to create screen capture images.

Using video, you can simply record in an over the shoulder type of screen capture so that they can see what you are doing in a step-by-step manner. You may want to make your decision based off of what is already in the marketplace.

If you see a lot of video, it could mean that your specific topic requires video. However, it could just be the personal preference of the vendor, in which case a text alternative may go over well in the marketplace.

Day 10 – Brainstorm One or Two Upsells

Part of the product planning stage will be for you to determine what all will be in your funnel. Ideally, you will have at least one or two upsell offers so that your customers have the opportunity to receive more value from you, and your affiliates have additional opportunities to earn commissions.

Day 11 – Determine Your Price Points

After you know what will be in your funnel, you need to set a price point for every portion of it. Usually, the price points climb upward. For example, you may start off with a $17 front end product, followed by a $27 one time offer upgrade, followed by a $47 second one time offer upgrade.

You may have a high ticket offer in there as well, such as coaching, that you put as the final one time offer upgrade. Or, you might even do a free front end offer and more expensive one time offer upgrades in an effort to help build your list.

Day 12 – Consider Running a Contest for Affiliates

Take today to make a decision about whether or not you’re going to host a contest for your affiliates. Never promise to pay out prizes you can’t afford, and set minimums to ensure that someone who only makes 5 sales can’t win an expensive first place prize.

If you want to, you can visit Warrior Plus and see what contests have been run or are coming up so that you’ll know what’s common for prize money as well as how it’s earned, such as the volume of sales or revenue earned.

Week 3: Set Up Your Product Listing and Announcements

Before you even begin creating your product, you want to create the listings and launch announcements so that affiliates can begin getting ready for it well in advance. They will want to have time to schedule a promo for your lunch as well as create a bonus that will help them earn more commissions and dominate the leaderboard.

Day 13 – Set Your Launch Dates and Times

You need to spend today coming up with a feasible timeline for your launch. Ideally, you want to give affiliates at least two weeks after you announce the launch to work on their promo efforts.

You also want to select a date that isn’t crowded on product launch calendars, if possible. Give yourself more than enough time to complete the product. You don’t want to be rushing and have to cut corners with quality or delay your launch due to unexpected obstacles.

Day 14 – Create Your Product Listing and Funnel Where Applicable

Take today to decide where you want to list your product for sale. You can always list it on multiple platforms for the launch, but honestly, this diminishes the volume of sales people will see on each site and it might be best to stick to just one.

Day 15 – Set Up a Joint Venture Details Page

On day 15, you want to create your JV (joint venture) page that will inform your prospective affiliate marketers about the details of your upcoming launch. On this page, you need to have the dates and times of your launch, details of what is in each part of your funnel, the price and commission percentage you are offering, swipe files for them to use in their email promos, and buttons to where they can go grab their affiliate links.

Day 16 – Head to MunchEye and Make Your Launch Known

Once your JV page is set up, go set up an account on MunchEye.com, which is where online marketers go to list their product launch. Here, affiliate marketers can find products that they wish to promote.

Each of the listings is like a blog post, so you can format the details that you provide just as you would on your JV page. Each week, the products that are launching will also be listed in a forum that they run, so you will get additional coverage to prospective affiliates.

Day 17 – Announce the Upcoming Launch on Your Social Media Profiles

After you have completed that step, go to your various social media profiles, where you should be networking with other marketers, and announce your upcoming launch. Make sure you include a link to the JV page as well as a few small details about what your product is about.

Day 18 – Reach Out to Recruit a Few Select Affiliates

Once you have done that, take some time to research past product launches that had contests and leaderboards, and take note of who was able to convert visitors into buyers.

After you have this list, you can go and contact these select individuals and hopefully recruit them to promote your launch. Make sure you approached them with a link to the JV page as well as a complimentary review copy for them to consider.

Week 4: It’s Product Creation Time

During week 4, you will be working on the creation of your product. You may have even already started, and it may take you more than a week. Don’t rush the process. If it takes you three weeks instead of one, it’s better to have a quality end result.

Day 19 – Create the Front End Product

On day 19, create the front end of the product that you want to sell. This may be something like 10 video modules with accompanying PDF transcripts, or a 25 page eBook.

Everyone who is creating their own products will be doing so at a speed that is right for them. Some people may be able to create right 40 pages a day, while others can only write 5.

Day 20 – Create Your Upgrade Offer

After creating the front end product, it will be time to work on your upgrade offer. This may or may not take one day, and you may have more than one upgrade offer. If so, feel free to stretch out the time as much as you need without delaying due to procrastination or fear.

Day 21 – Write Your Two Sales Letters

When the product has been created, you will need to log in to your domain and create two or more sales letters, Depending on how many upgrades you have. The sales copy will vary a bit, because with the front end copy, you are trying to convert a visitor who has obstacles with buying.

After they have proven that they can let their barriers down and purchase from you, the sales copy for your one time offer upgrade should be easier to write. This is an offer where you are simply trying to elevate and add value to the customer’s original purchase.

Day 22 – Make a Strategic Download Page

On day 22, you want to take some time to create a strategic download page. Many people missed the mark with their download page, simply including a link for the customer to download their product.

However, the space on this page can be used to increase your earnings by reminding buyers to consider the upgrade offers, introducing them to other products you may have in the marketplace, or even linking out to affiliate offers.

If you want to, you can also offer some of this prime digital real estate to top affiliates that you want to recruit for your launch. You can allow them to send you a banner ad that is placed below the download links and which links out to their products or lead magnet page.

Day 23 – Do Last Edits and Go Above and Beyond

Today, you will be doing a quality check on your own product for any last minute edits that need to take place. Don’t try to rush the process and put out shoddy work. Even though it’s annoying, you need to go back and redo videos that need to be repaired or text that needs to be edited.

You also want to take this time to think of some way that you can go above and beyond to those who buy your product. For example, you may want to come up with a checklist or cheat sheet that you include as a surprise gift in the download.

Day 24 – Send Out Review Copies to Get Feedback

On day 24, take the finished product and send out review copies to affiliates that you want to recruit to your launch. This will help them make a final decision about whether or not to promote you to their subscribers.

You may also want to send a review copy to a couple of your dedicated followers from your blog or social media so that you can solicit feedback to use in your testimonials on your sales page.

Week 5: Last Launch Steps to Consider

This is the last week of your launch. There are a few housekeeping issues to take care of to ensure that your launch is carried out effortlessly. Most people end up extremely nervous during their first launch of an info product.

If you do the following steps, it will help alleviate the nervousness that you feel about putting yourself out there in front of customers as a leading niche expert. You will gain a solid reputation as an info product creator and instill confidence in both customers and affiliates.

Day 25 – Upload Your Final Files

On day 25, take your final files and upload them to whatever platform you are using to sell your product on. If you have received any feedback from prospective affiliates or followers who received your complimentary review copy, take time to make any changes you feel are necessary before you take this step.

Day 26 – Do a Test Purchase to Ensure Functionality

Today, you should be doing a test purchase on the platform that you are selling on so that you can make sure the launch will function properly. Many people fail to do this step, and right when many top affiliates send a flood of traffic, something glitches and sheer panic sets in.

This is a great way to ensure top affiliates will never promote for you again. They expect you to test your launch and make sure that everything is working properly. If they reserved a spot in their email promos for your product, and the link doesn’t work so that they can earn commission, they will be understandably angry.

Day 27 – Create a Welcome Email for New Buyers

On day 27, create a welcome email in your email autoresponder system that greets all of your new subscribers who came from the purchase of your info product. You can segment your email autoresponder lists so that you have a buyer’s list that is separate from those who simply download your freebie on a lead magnet page.

Day 28 – Be on Hand When the Launch Goes Live

Today is the day when your launch will go live. You want to make sure that you don’t simply schedule it to go live while you do other things. You want to be on hand to make sure that the process is running smoothly for both your affiliates and your customers.

That way, if anything goes wrong, such as you forgetting to replace an old file with an updated one, or the website crashing due to the amount of visitors that are being sent to it, you will be able to handle it immediately.

Day 29 – Update Affiliates About the Leaderboard

After the first day of the launch, and until the lunch is over, however many days you choose to let it run, you want to update affiliates about the leaderboard if you have decided to run a contest.

Not only do you want to email them, if you have a separate list for affiliates, but you also want to share the leaders of your contest on social media. Many marketers truly enjoy earning the bragging rights of being a top affiliate, because it helps their business in many other ways.

Day 30 – Have a Plan for the Post-Launch Period

Make sure you have a plan for what happens after the launch is over. What will you be working on next? What have your customers signaled that they are interested in? You also want to plan any reciprocal promotions you have agreed to, hopefully with top quality vendors such as yourself.

How to Become an In-Demand Affiliate Marketer

In this post, we’ll explore how to become an in-demand affiliate marketer so you can make more money selling other people’s products and services.

How to Become an In-Demand Affiliate Marketer

While affiliate marketing is one of the easier and less expensive business models to pursue, many become frustrated when they’re unable to get approved by a company or vendor to be able to promote their products.

You have to understand that approving someone for promotions is a risky situation for the vendor and company. There are many unscrupulous individuals who will get approval and use stolen credit cards to make purchases so that they can earn commissions and get paid before the consumer realizes what’s happened and demands a refund.

If the vendor allows this to happen, they can have their account shut down on whatever platform they’re listing their products on. Not only that, but becoming a top affiliate allows you to get perks that others aren’t privy to.

So what can you do to prop yourself up as the kind of affiliate vendors are clamoring to bring onboard for their product launches? There are a few things that will set you apart from average or under-performing affiliates.

Position Yourself as the Go-To Expert in Your Niche

When you start out as an affiliate, you may be thinking that you’re just regurgitating the features and benefits of a product to the consumer who is considering buying it. But you’re more than that.

You’re the one who is not only showing people what to buy (and what not to), but teaching them how to put products to good use, how to get the most from their purchases, and what they should be considering next.

You can do that by building a niche blog and social profiles that ooze expertise and value. When vendors and companies see that you’re one of the leading experts, they will be on your doorstep hoping to convince you to mention their product on your blog.

What you have to do to achieve this level of expertise is first become good at learning and absorbing information. You’ll need to read books and trade or consumer magazines, watch videos and listen to podcasts about your niche topic.

When you expand your knowledge, you’ll be able to share with others and help them navigate the problems they’re experiencing to achieve their goals. You should set aside time every day to learn something in your niche.

Second, become a machine at developing value-packed content for that blog. You never watch to steal anyone else’s content, but create your own from scratch. Vendors who see bloggers with a thriving site that hasn’t sat stagnant for months or years will want you as their affiliate.

Consumers will also be turning to you in droves because they’ll appreciate the fact that they can log onto the Internet every day and find fresh information coming from you about something they need help with.

Rank High in the SERPs for Your Niche Keywords and Phrases

Companies and vendors love to approach the top sites ranking for keywords and phrases in an effort to get their brand showcased on the domain. You need to spend ample time learning the ins and outs of SEO (search engine optimization) so that your site begins to rank well for these terms.

People who have products ranking for terms your site shows up on page one for will often approach you and let you know they found you that way. They may then ask if you’d be willing to review their product if they sent it to you.

So how do you turn your blog into a high ranking site? Start with the set up. You want your blog to be an appealing experience for both human and bot visitors alike. Your navigation needs to be on point, and pages should load in a timely (fast) manner.

You want to optimize things like your images so that they reflect the appropriate keywords that a computer bot would understand. If possible, use keywords in your domain name so that it reflects the topic of your niche.

Pay attention to things like your bounce rate. Google and other search engines like it when people stick around on a site. Those are the sites they want to recommend to people – not ones people flee the second they land on a blog.

Make sure your content is thorough and not skim. Remember, quality over quantity is most important with SEO. You’ll want to conduct thorough research for keywords and phrases.

Don’t just focus on broad keywords. Those will take longer for you to rank for in the beginning. Instead, focus on a hybrid where you’re also targeting long-tail keyword phrases that will be easier for you to rise in the SERPs (search engine results pages) for.

You can use free or paid keyword tools and target things like, “best weight loss program for over 40” rather than just the keyword diet. You’ll likely rank for the longtail keyword phrase very quickly, and companies will sit up and take notice.

Create Unique and In-Depth Products Reviews

The sad thing about many affiliates is that their content is really very uninspiring and ineffective. Companies and brands with good products want the cream of the crop when it comes to who is recommending them.

Instead of just copying and pasting what equates to the sales copy into your blog, where you’re doing nothing more than rehashing the features the vendor mentioned, go further for the good of your readers.

Start by making sure you convince the reader that you can empathize with their dilemma or problem. They need to know that you understand where they’re coming from, whether they’re experiencing feelings of frustration, shame, confusion or another emotion.

Then, present the product solution(s) in a way that lets the reader know you’ve done your homework, have their best interest at heart, and can appropriately guide them in what they need to do next.

There are many different slants you can take with your reviews. You can do a case study if you, yourself have access to the product and want to take it for a test drive. This can span over the course of more than one post if it’s something that takes time.

You can create a top 10 list of the best products and solutions. You can pit one product against another for a complete breakdown of which has the best features, price point and benefits.

Don’t Give Everyone a Glowing Review

Believe it or not, the fact that you don’t give everyone a thumbs up is going to make you more in-demand than someone who never says anything negative about a product. Consumers can see through that façade.

They know when you’re trying to make a quick buck versus when you’re being authentic with your reviews and recommendations. So for a company to actually secure a positive review from you will be an honor.

This will help you weed out the shoddy products and vendors because they’ll be scared that you might tell the truth about how their products is lacking in quality. It makes those with good products clamor for the chance to have you tell the world about how great their product is.

What you don’t want to do is approach it in an unsavory manner. There’s a difference between being honest about a product and being cruel or hateful. If you start a war of words with another company, it’ll shine a light on you negatively, and everyone will want to avoid you – vendors and consumers alike.

This is where many affiliates go wrong. They’re more concerned with money than they are serving their readers. The first rule of thumb should be that you have their back. Of course, you want to make money, so you have to learn how to select the best products to review and know how to see through false claims and obvious hype.

When you’re someone who tells the truth and cultivates a big following based on your genuine approach, you’ll be seen as a blogger whose endorsement means a lot more than someone who is willing to endorse just anyone.

Be Able to Tout Your Traffic, List and Conversion Statistics

One thing you’re going to want to do is know your numbers and work on getting them trending in an upward path. The three they’ll be most interested in knowing are how much traffic your site gets, how many subscribers you have on your list, and what your conversion (and refund) rates are.

With traffic, you never want to falsely inflate the numbers because this is something they can check themselves to some degree. Don’t send phony (untargeted) traffic to your site because the bounce rate will skyrocket and you’ll lose power in the SERPs.

Instead, focus on creating quality content and using your blog and social networks to send or pull in traffic naturally. If you find a paid ad route you want to take, that’s okay, too – as long as the traffic you’re buying is relevant to your topic.

As you generate traffic, make sure that you’re maximizing your list building efforts. You want to have a landing page that has a lead magnet offer they can’t refuse. You want to also showcase that form in the sidebar of your blog as well as below all posts you create, and in a pop-up form, as well in some cases.

Make sure you’re doing everything in your power to get people on your list so that when you want to promote something, you can let the vendor know you have a list of 10,000 or 100,000 targeted individuals to promote to.

Make sure you work on subscriber retention, too – not just getting people on your list initially. You want to grow your numbers, not continually be scrambling to replace those who have opted out because they didn’t see value in staying on your list.

You can provide your subscribers with insider knowledge about your niche, such as added tips, advance notice of a product about to be released, and more. Create a loyal bond between yourself and your subscriber and this will make your recommendation more valuable to your subscribers.

Conversion (and refund) rates are also important to vendors. You want to grow your conversion rate by only promoting the best products in your niche. Likewise, doing this will reduce your refund rate.

If a vendor or company sees a high refund rate, they’ll almost always reject you because this could pose a problem for them. Even if you have a high conversion rate, a high refund rate will tank your ability to get approval.

You can do things such as offering an exclusive bonus to get higher conversions for your profile. When customers are getting more from their purchase when they buy through your link, it makes the process easier.

Be Selective and Have Some Requests of Your Own

If you’re promoting everyone and anything, brands will see nothing special about approving you to promote their product. As your profile grows as someone who is a competitive and high-performing affiliate, you’ll want to make some demands of your own, in a polite way.

For example, you might require that anyone asking you to promote first sends a review copy of the product (or a tangible product if applicable). You might also require an increase of commissions.

If a brand is only offering 30%, you might require 50 instead. Or, work out a deal if it’s a low priced funnel, where they’re paying 100% for the front end to you and 50% on the one time offer upgrades.

A bump in commission to top affiliates is very common, so don’t be hesitant to ask for it. This is especially effective when you have those statistics backing you up with a lot of subscribers and high conversions to showcase.

Some vendors might create an exclusive bonus for you to offer to your subscribers without you having to do the work yourself. You can either use this or couple it with one of your own for an even bigger bonus.

There are many other perks you can negotiate if you want to. From having an exclusive sales page with things you prefer to have on it (such as video) to a spot for a promotion of your site on their download page, there are ways to get more out of the vendor-affiliate relationship.

Becoming an affiliate marketer is often a go-to business model for newbies because it costs very little (the price of a domain and cheap hosting package). But unless you know how to maximize your position and efforts as an affiliate, you’ll never achieve the level of financial success that you’d dreamed of.

Disaster Preparedness On A Budget

Disaster doesn’t make an advance appointment, but you can rest assured that your home and family could be penciled in at any time. Disaster planning and emergency preparation is very important, but so often families put it off because of budget constraints. Here are a few tips that I have used to prepare my home and family for a potential disaster

A Little at a Time

Because there isn’t a lot of extra room in my budget, I have to buy emergency supplies a little at a time. This is the best money-saving option for my family. I make a habit of picking up an extra item or two when I can and add to my supplies slowly. I know it’s not ideal, but for a family with a tight budget, it is the best option.

Shop Used

Some items to be added to the emergency supplies can be bought used at a fraction of the new price. Check yard sales and thrift stores for extra flashlights, candles, battery operated lamps or radios, backpacks and other needed supplies. I have found such items priced at 25 and 50 cents before and they work perfectly.

Check Your Storage

Most of us have a lot of stuff stored away in corners, under beds, in basements, in garages and the like. Take a look through what you have in storage and you might be surprised at what you already have that can be added to your emergency supplies. Extra tarps, forgotten first aid kits, storage containers and other items can all be dragged out of storage and added to your disaster supplies. Because I have a number of things in storage from moving a year ago and combining two households, it seems as though we are always finding “new” treasures that we had forgotten about.

Compare Prices

Compare prices by making a list of items you want to buy then browse through various stores to write down prices and quantities for items. Use a small notebook to write down all pertinent information and keep it handy. This will be a great price reference book to help you know where to get the cheapest prices on items. Be sure to check your local dollar stores as those stores usually have great prices on a wide variety of items.

Don’t forget about sales at local stores. Many stores will advertise great sale prices in the Sunday newspaper so it’s worth your time to peruse the weekly circulars. I write down the regular everyday prices on items at the various stores I shop at (along with the size and quantity of the items) and use this master list to help me know which store offers the best deals on the items I need. This price list is a time and money saver.

11 Ways to Shop Smart for Survival Supplies

Being strategic and stocking up on all of your survival supplies ahead of time is a wise thing to do. But if you are simply buying things on a whim, you may be wasting a lot of money that can be put toward even more supplies for yourself and your family.


There are eleven different ways that you can be strategic in your shopping so that you are saving yourself money and making sure that you are purchasing the correct items, rather than those that might fail you when you need them most.

Once you are aware of these cost saving and strategic methods, you will be able to get good deals on the food, gear, defense, and other supplies that you need on a regular basis.

You may discover that you have already made mistakes along the way with preparations you’ve made so far, but that’s okay as long as you change what you’re doing from this point forward and begin shopping smart.

Learn Which Stores Have the Supplies You Need

You need to make a list of the types of supplies that you want to buy. This includes things like survival meals that are shelf stable for 25+ years, defense tools, water purification and storage items, shelter materials such as a tent, bug out bags, fire starting gear, first aid items, and more.

Once you know exactly which categories you will be buying for, you need to make a list of the different stores both online and offline that you can purchase these types of items at.

Don’t just look at specialty stores, such as a sporting goods store for a tent. You can also buy a tent at Walmart or Amazon at a discount if your budget requires it. You want to consider big brand-name stores as well as smaller stores that may frequently run sales in an effort to unload inventory or boost their bottom line.

You may also be able to find some things at secondhand stores if they are in good shape, such as a thick coat for layering if the grid goes down in cold weather. You can also make a note about what kinds of supplies are sold at discount stores, such as a dollar store.

You can often find survival supplies there and on a very big discount, which would be a great time for you to stock up. For example, you might find an entire pack of lighters for starting a fire for just one dollar, but the same pack may cost eight dollars or more on Amazon or elsewhere.

Another place you may want to shop is your local military surplus store. Many bigger cities have these, and you’ll be able to find survival gear that will keep you and your loved ones safe in almost any weather condition or situation.

You can find paracords, blankets, first aid kits, gas masks, and more. They have camouflage clothing, combat boots, and other tactical gear – and it’s authentic – the same as what the military uses.

Buy in Bulk Whenever Possible

One thing many consumers forget, when they are wrapped up in the process of purchasing survival supplies, is that you can often save money if you will purchase more of the item all at once.

Instead of buying individual products, many manufacturers will bundle them up into larger packs where you will spend more, so they will give a slight discount to help you save money and entice you.

For example, you might find some MREs that are being sold individually at a higher price than if you bought a pack of one dozen. Sometimes it does take a little longer to save up the money that you need to buy in bulk, but in the long run, you’ll save more and be able to purchase more supplies for you and your family.

You also want to buy in bulk because it’s easier to take inventory and find space for it in your home. Sometimes, having a bunch of Individual packages of something means they get lost easier, or they’re harder to organize in a set space.

Stores that sell things in bulk, such as Costco and Sam’s, often have good deals on supplies that you may need in a future survival situation. They do this for things like food, toiletries, batteries, etc.

Learn How to Use Coupons Strategically

There was a point in time when couponing had its own show on television. Some stores did not like the fact that people were able to reduce their bill to almost zero dollars, if not get cash back for a large cart full of items they paid nothing for.

So they eliminated some of the loopholes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still save with coupons and discount cards. You need to keep an eye out for your weekly circulars and find out what items are expected to go on sale for the upcoming week.

Usually, these circulators will come in your mailbox, but you may have to go to the store and pick one up yourself. Another thing you can do is join or look for printable coupons or even digital coupons that you can use in store or online.

Even on Amazon, if you are shopping for something, make sure you look for the opportunity to check the area where it says something like, “Save an extra 10%.” Another thing you want to do is look for the deals where you can buy a certain number of items and get one free.

Sometimes this will be done on food, but other times it will be done on things like toiletries, and other items. The stores may have a limit as to how many can be purchased, so you’ll need to be aware of that before you have an expectation to stock up on something.

Plan for What You Can Afford

One thing you want to do when shopping smart for your survival supplies is make sure that it doesn’t dip into the monetary needs in other areas of your life. Make sure you have a good handle on your upcoming bills, needs for the children’s school supplies, gas, etc.

The last thing you want to do is make an impulse survival buy for a large stock of something that you saw go on sale, only to be left unable to pay the mortgage or whatever other item you need for your family in that moment.

It’s better to set aside a percentage of your paychecks each week so that you can shop the following week or month and buy what you need without experiencing the pressure from your finances.

Always remember that you can level up with the items that you buy at a later date. For example, you may only be able to afford a solar phone charger right now that costs under $30.

You would really like a whole home generator, but it’s not in your budget at that moment. You can go ahead and get the smaller priced item because you never know if that emergency will hit before you are able to afford the higher ticket product. It’s always good to have back up an additional supplies anyway, so it won’t go to waste in the future.

Buy According to the Space You Have

Before you start shopping, you want to make sure that you have room for all of the supplies that you will be purchasing. You don’t want to get everything home, only to discover you have nowhere to put it, so it goes to waste.

If possible, set aside one room of your house as a supply storage room. If you don’t have that type of room, then make a plan for each room of your house to see where you could store certain supplies, such as under the bed or in a closet or cabinet.

Don’t forget you may have an attic space or an outdoor shed where certain things could be stored as well. Just make sure that wherever you store things, the supplies are being kept at the correct temperature.

For example, some items may need to stay in a cool and dry place as opposed to an outdoor, hot or cold weather situation. Some people like to shop for their survival supplies with the intention of renting a storage facility.

Keep in mind that in a severe and chaotic survival situation, those places may be raided by looters who are after valuables that they can used to trade with others. Not only that, but it may be unsafe for you to leave your homestead and travel to another location to get your supplies, so it’s always better to have them on hand.

Be Ready to Buy at the First Sign of Impending Disaster

Stocking up on survival supplies is a long-term process. For most people, there’s no way you can go out today and purchase everything you and your family will need for the next year.

Therefore, you have to stay aware and know when it’s crucial for you to head to the store immediately and purchase certain supplies that you will need. When the pandemic hit, other areas of the world as well as the coastal cities were posting videos on social media about store shelves being empty, in particular food and toilet paper as well as Lysol.

If you were paying attention to social media and news sites, you will have seen the chaos unfolding and then be able to head to the store immediately before the masses knew that it was hitting in your area.

You want to shop for supplies you may need – whether it is a pandemic situation, war, or even a weather event. You usually have ample notice about a hurricane or tornado, and you can go to the store and make sure that you have your immediate supplies to survive the coming days and weeks.

Make sure that you only allow yourself to buy these last-minute supplies that can be purchased locally. You don’t want to have to order something that may take a week or longer to arrive if you may need it the next day or several hours later. For things you’ll need to send away for, make sure you shop for those early.

Bring a List of Current Inventory and Needs

If you are prepping seriously, and not just randomly hoarding things whenever you think about it, you will have an inventory of all of your survival supplies, down to the date it was purchased and the date it expires.

This can be done digitally, but it’s also a good idea to have a paper account of your supplies so that you can take it on the go with you when you go shopping. That way, if you see an advertised sale in front of you, you can quickly glance at your spreadsheet or list and see if the item is something you have plenty of, if the product is about to expire, and if you need more.

It’s also a good idea to prioritize the things you want to buy. For example, if winter is coming up, you may want to prioritize certain supplies that have to do with heating food or staying warm over things like remedies for mosquito bites, or anything that might happen in the spring or summer months.

You can do the same when you are shopping online. Make sure you have your spreadsheet open so that you can adequately track what you are purchasing, the date, and any other pertinent information – such as the count of items if it is in bulk, as well as the size in ounces or pounds for example.

This way, you won’t be guessing about what stock is back home or in another room on the shelves while you’re shopping. You’ll have all of that information at your fingertips and you can shop smart.

Know When Seasonal Supplies Go on Sale

After the Christmas season ends, or Halloween – or any holiday where there are decorations and candy for that matter, you have probably seen stores discount the items that remain on their shelves significantly, such as 75 to 90% off.

This is a great time for you to stock up on certain supplies, whether it’s food or weather related seasonal items. For example, right before the strong winter weather, you may find that generators are more expensive due to the likelihood of the grid shutting down during a blizzard than they are during the spring and summer, when the threat has subsided.

Clothing is another area where you can find steep discounts on the supplies that you need. For example if you want to stock up on sizes for the future as your children are growing, or clothes that you can layer in the event of cold weather where there is no electricity, the best time to buy this is when the new spring line has arrived at stores, and they are trying to sell everything and make space for new product.

Buy Off Brand to Get More

In today’s world, brand names mean a lot to many different people. Whether it’s the clothes on their back or the food items on their shelves or in the refrigerator. However, when it comes to a survival situation, you won’t care whether or not the brand has any significant prestige, except when it comes to its quality and safety.

For example, if you know that there is a certain brand of designer jeans that you prefer to wear in current times, but they are far more expensive than a durable, cheaper brand, you’ll want to go with the cheaper brand if you’re on a budget and need to stock up for a survival situation.

The store brands are often every bit as good as top labels – and in fact some are made in the same factory, only to have a different label put on them. So when you are stocking up on things like canned vegetables and fruits, Q-tips, etc., don’t be afraid to go with the off label brand so that you get more for your money and have the peace of mind knowing that you have the stock on hand.

Read Consumer Reviews Before You Spend Money

When you’re buying a can of mixed fruit, you’re probably not going to see any consumer reviews about that particular item. But when you are buying some things such as a bug out bag on Amazon, you will see a number of ratings and reviews that you can use to gauge whether or not this is a smart buying decision.

It’s true that you can’t always trust every single review. But you can see whether or not a review is made from a verified purchase, and then make a decision based on the thoroughness of the comment they leave about the product so that you can determine whether or not it is a real or fake review.

You can also turn to things like Consumer Reports if you are making a larger purchase on something such as a technical item, like a generator or storm shelter. They will frequently test and thoroughly review products, pointing out all of the benefits, features, and faults of an item so that you can see whether or not it would be a good purchase for you and your family.

You can also simply Google the name of the product and see who has been blogging about and reviewing certain products. You can even search by specific criteria, such as a camping tent for four or two people, or a sleeping bag for a certain degree of weather, like those below freezing.

Add Supplies with Incremental Purchases

If your budget is severely limited, and you know you need to stock up on things as you go, then you’ll want to just buy one or two extra items every time you go to the store. For example, if you know you need two cans of green beans that are $.50 each, go ahead and buy an additional one or two in that moment.

If you are shopping on Amazon and you have a total of $16 in your cart, knowing you could get free shipping with $25 purchase, go ahead and find something for your survival supplies worth nine dollars so that you can bump it up to the free shipping level.

This way you’re saving the shipping money, but you’re also getting something in return for it. Another thing you may end up doing when you are making smaller build up purchases of supplies like this is taking into consideration what kind of trade-offs you can make.

For example, you may want to forgo an extra bag of chips so that you can get a canned good that will last longer. When you’re making incremental purchases, it may not seem like a lot in that moment, but over the coming weeks and months, you’ll be amazed to see how fast your supplies have grown.

Shopping for survival supplies can either be a daunting or empowering process. It takes awhile to build up a formidable stash of goods, but you should be able to quickly and easily prepare for a 72 hour ordeal without much of a problem.

Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

Every holiday, people tend to put on a fair amount of weight, right up until they make their New Year’s resolutions. Some people start gaining the weight as early as October and September, when they start putting out Halloween candy.

If you want to get in shape or you think you’re going to want to get in shape, you should take steps to avoid gaining a bunch of weight during the holidays so that getting that summer body is much more achievable and more likely.

Choosing the Right Foods

Part of the problem with holiday foods is that they tend to be eaten in large amounts, and they also contain plenty of sugars and carbs. This is especially true around Halloween, when most of the foods are candy and chocolate.

Around Thanksgiving, there is turkey, but there’s also stuffing, potatoes, sauces, casseroles, rolls, and desserts. Pies are in great abundance, and the carb loaded sides are stacked high.

Come Christmas time, it’s a very similar situation to Thanksgiving, but with the addition of things like chocolate, cookies, hot chocolate, and more. But of course, many of these things are traditional or at least common place, making it hard to avoid them.

The key to keeping yourself in check on these holidays isn’t to outright deny yourself any of the foods you want to eat, but rather to limit them to a reasonable amount within a reasonable timespan.

That being said, there are some better options for foods that you can focus on to allow you to eat more and stay within a certain caloric limit. One of the main ones is meats, especially poultry.

Chicken and turkey are very commonly eaten on holidays, so you can load up a bit more on these instead of focusing as much on the sides and desserts. However, you might want to try staying away from fried foods as well as unhealthy meats like ham.

Another thing you can try is focusing more on vegetables for your holiday meals. Many people don’t prepare vegetables very well, but if you try some good seasoning and roasting methods, they pair well with poultry and keep your calories and carbs low.

When it comes to desserts, try and opt more for fruit based desserts at least. An apple pie isn’t very healthy any way you cut it, but it’s a little bit healthier than chocolate based desserts. Try not to go overboard on desserts, but they’re fine to have in moderation.

Dodging Peer Pressure

Another problem faced during the holidays is peer pressure. A great deal of fitness lies in the mindset, so when you’re in the right state of mind you know what foods to avoid, and thus you lose weight.

However, if it’s a holiday and people are really pushing for you to eat more than you think you should, it’s easy to cave in. If you think your family might push you to eat more, try to avoid bringing it up in the first place at all.

If it’s an option, fix your own plate and load up on more meat and take it easier on the sides. It’s still fine to have some of everything, but just keep to a small and reasonable amount- especially when the desserts come out.

If you bring up the fact that you’re dieting, many people will blow you off, saying that it’s just for this one holiday and that they worked hard to cook the food, and so on. This can lead to quite the annoying conversation, so it’s good to try and avoid it as much as possible.

Something to keep in mind is the amount of time it takes to gain and lose weight. Once you start to lose weight, if you’re losing at a healthy rate, it should be about half a pound per week. In that one day, you might be gaining 1 or 2 pounds, not including leftovers.

So if Thanksgiving in its entirety leaves you 4 pounds heavier, it’s going to take 8 weeks of work to undo that process, assuming you’re dieting and exercising at a healthy and reasonable rate. That’s a lot of time for “just one holiday.”

The same can be said for Christmas. People tend to eat rather lavishly and in large quantities throughout Christmas time. If you have an extended amount of time off of work to be with your family, and you’re eating and drinking a lot, you’ll gain plenty of weight.

When people try and pressure you into making bad decisions like eating a ton of food that’s not good for you, just go along with them until they stop bugging you about it. Don’t eat as much as you tell them you’re going to, if that’s what it takes.

Often times people can get upset when they hear someone’s dieting at a lavish dinner, not because they put a bunch of work into it, but rather because they all know it’s not good for them necessarily.

It’s in your best interest if you want to lose weight and look a certain way for summer to avoid people that try and get you off track of your weight loss. There’s no law saying you have to start dieting after New Year’s, and the sooner you start, the better.

Eating in Moderation

Whether you’re not in control of the meals for the holidays or you can’t overcome peer pressure to eat certain things, or you just don’t want to miss out, you can rest assured. You can and should still eat well on holidays, but you should keep it in moderation.

One of the main reasons people tend to fail diets in general is that they get so strict on themselves but don’t have the mental strength to keep up with that strictness, so they end up cheating really hard on their diet instead of just indulging a little bit.

The same definitely applies to the holidays. When everyone is eating good meals and having a good time, you don’t want to feel left out sitting there eating some “healthy” options. It’s going to make you want to binge really hard and drop the diet.

You shouldn’t deny yourself the ability to eat the foods you want during holidays, but you just have to be smart about it. You should try to stay on top of your diet on the days surrounding the holiday itself, instead of eating tons of leftovers days afterwards.

It’s important to be mindful of how you eat on the day of the holiday, as well. If you plan on having a Thanksgiving dinner with your family at 6 PM, you should try to have a light breakfast and lunch, just enough to tide you over until the dinner.

If possible, you should avoid tons of calorie dense drinks. Whether it be soda, beer, or anything else, drinks that aren’t water can be pretty hefty on the calories. If you’re trying to save your waistline while eating a nice, big dinner, stay away from the beer.

Try to employ more of a sampling strategy when it comes to things like sides and desserts. If you want to eat a bit of everything, just get a little bit of everything. By the end of it you’ll probably feel pretty full, and won’t really want to eat more.

It’s for the best if you limit your heavy eating to one day, as well. Depending on the holiday, try not to eat a bunch in the days before and after it, but rather just the day itself.

Don’t worry about going a little bit overboard on one single day. If you’re just eating heavily on Christmas day, you can do that. Relax and don’t worry about counting calories a bunch for that one instance.

If you’re really worried about going over for that one day, you can always make up for it in the future. For example, let’s say you go over your limit by 1000 calories one day. Instead of freaking out about it, just spend the next two days at an extra 500 calorie deficit, or the next four days at a mere 250 calorie deficit.

As long as you’re eating lavishly in moderation, you’re going to be fine. It won’t be the end of the world if you’re a bit over for one day, but it will bite you pretty hard if you go way overboard for multiple days at a time.

Don’t Wait to Start Your Exercise Plans

One thing that messes with a lot of people’s fitness plans is the timing of it all. For some reason, people are always so worried about just starting their diet and exercise routines that they keep postponing it, often to a point where they’re months off of schedule.

A lot of people try to synchronize the start of their fitness routine to some arbitrary thing. Some people have to have it starting on a Monday. Others won’t start it October, because Thanksgiving and Christmas are “right around the corner!”

So, instead, they wait until January, but not right on New Year’s because they’re celebrating on New Year’s. These excuses go on and on and months fly by, wasted, never having been used for a productive purpose.

Most people are guilty of this, or at least something like it. You need to put a stop to it, and just start getting into the routine of diet and exercise. Your routine doesn’t need to be 100% perfect, but it needs to start sooner rather than later.

The first day of going to the gym is always the worst one. If you’ve never been before, getting that first day out of the way now makes the weeks and months to come much easier. Additionally, gyms tend to be a bit sparser during the holiday season.

However, the gyms get packed once New Year’s hits. So, if you’re trying to go for the first time at the busiest times in January, instead of the less populated times in November, you’re going to have a worse time.

Instead, you should try to get used to and familiar with the gym ahead of time, that way when all the new people show up in January, you won’t have to worry about anything except for a slightly more crowded gym.

Getting ahead on your diet and everything else will help you start to lose weight, which can bring you even closer to what will eventually be your New Year’s resolution goal weight.

Going from 200 pounds down to 170 in a year is much more achievable than going from 240 down to 170. By coming closer to your goal before you even set it, you’re going to have a much easier time reaching it, and you’ll probably feel less pessimistic about it.

You might think about it this way- if you lose even five pounds before the holiday season, you at least have that much wiggle room to work with. If you gain five pounds throughout the holidays, you’re right back where you started instead of being worse off.

Stop procrastinating on getting in shape and just start a basic gym and diet routine. Don’t even worry about making it just perfect at the time being, just as long as you’re being active and making better dietary choices.

Best and Worst Holiday Foods

If you’re not inclined towards fitness and health, then what is and isn’t good for you to eat can be pretty confusing. You’ll hear a lot of mixed opinions and contradictory information, which can be stressful to sort through as a beginner.

By getting a good idea of what foods you should absolutely have and should be careful with, and why, you can get a decent idea of how other foods in your holiday lineup can affect your health.

The best foods that you’ll find around the holiday season is various vegetables. You’ll find carrots, squash, cream greens, broccoli, and more. These are often best done roasted in the oven with some various seasonings.

Another great holiday food you’ll find, of course, it meat. Turkey, chicken, roast, ham, and more all find their way onto holiday tables in abundance. Assuming it’s smoked or grilled and not deep fried, meat is an excellent choice for your holiday meal.

Smoked and grilled meats are high in protein, low in carbs and sugars, and taste great. They’re not very calorie dense, which is a good thing. It means that they’re more filling without being as high in calories.

Now, there are many foods you’ll come across during the holidays that aren’t very good for you at all. Granted, they taste very good, so you can have some, but try not to go overboard on anything that’s going to cause excessive weight gain.

First and foremost is the sugary foods. Desserts, candy, and abundant at the end of each month from October through December. Pies, candy, and chocolate are all very high in sugar and should be eaten very lightly.

Hefty carb-loaded sides should be eaten very conservatively as well. Most commonly, you’ll find these in hearty casseroles, mashed potatoes, rolls and biscuits, and so on. Try to pair fairly small amounts of these with your meat of choice.

If you’re an adult, try to make it a point to stave off candy during Halloween and Christmas if you can. Leave more for the kids instead. If you’re trying to reach your goal of getting in better shape, the candy is going to be your worst enemy.

One of the less often noted things to avoid is high calorie drinks. Sodas are an obvious one to avoid at all costs, but so is alcohol. Alcohol itself is high in calories, and mixing it into sodas is even worse.

Beers, wines, and liquor are all very high calorie drinks. If you plan on drinking during the holidays when you’re with family, you should try to keep it pretty light. Drinking a bunch during those days will pack on the pounds very quickly.

10 Survival Skills You’ll Wish You Had When the SHTF

When it comes to survival, ordinary men and women who are just now immersing themselves into the prepper world are more concerned about hoarding supplies than they are learning the skills they need for survival purposes.

Unfortunately, there are many situations where you will be unable to take most of your supplies with you. In truly dire circumstances, you will have to know how to do everything on your own, without the convenience of having readymade gadgets and tools with you.

The best thing you can do to protect the lives of yourself and your family is to learn what you need to know ahead of time, gain those skills, and practice them over time. You also need to teach your family what to do in these situations, in case they are separated from you or you are no longer around.

Multiple Ways to Filter Water and Stay Hydrated

The first thing many people understand in terms of survival is that water is the most important thing your body will need to make it through an awful situation. You may have many gallons or bottles of water saved up in your household.

However, this will not help you if you and your loved ones have to bug out to another location. Even if you were able to fill your car with as many gallons as possible, it may not last you for the entire duration of the survival event.

The same goes for supplies that help you purify water, such as bleach or water purifying tablets. You may not have the convenience of filter straws or a filtering machine to help you clean the water that you need to drink.

If you find yourself in a situation where you do not have the convenience of a water purifying system, you can always start by boiling the water that you need. Of course, this requires you to start a fire and if you are drinking the water, you will need to wait until it cools down enough to consume safely.

If you are unable to boil the water, then you want to filter it as much as possible using whatever you have on hand. For example, you can run the water through different layers – such as a bandana, coffee filters that are in your backpack, or other fabrics that will separate the particles from the water.

You can also create a homemade filter by using things such as a bottle, sand or gravel, cotton balls, etc. Try to make sure you have some activated carbon with you in your bug out bag.

Another thing you might be able to use is the sun. There is a solar water disinfection process that takes up to 48 hours, but it can help kill off some of the harmful things in your water supply.

Start a Fire Without Matches or Lighters

Many people rely on the convenience of having matches or lighters to start a fire. Survival preppers often have flint and steel to do the job. But you may not have either of those.

You can still start a fire without these tools on hand and use it to boil water, cook your food, wash up, etc. The most common method of starting a fire without matches that just about everyone knows is to cause friction between two sticks.

If you’ve ever watched the show, Survivor, you will know that this is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of work and skill in allowing the spark to breathe and catch the kindling on fire.

There are also ways that you can start a fire using hard materials such as rocks to create a spark, using the sun in a concentrated effort, such as through a magnifying glass, etc.

You should learn and teach your loved ones how to gather the proper tinder that will easily ignite and help in starting a fire that will last. You also need to teach them what kind of kindling well best work for catching fire to then fuel larger pieces of wood.

Forage for Food in a Bug Out Situation

Foraging for food is another skill you will want to learn far ahead of a true emergency situation. You’ll need to have books on hand and you may need to access the Internet while it’s still working to ask questions or find information.

You’ll want to know how to forage for berries and plants as well as nuts in your area. But you also need to learn how to find those same items in other areas that you may have to bug out to in the event that you have to leave your local area.

Come up with a list of everywhere you might end up having to go, and learn how to forage for food in those locations. Then, put your skills to the test and carefully forage for food without putting yourself or your family in danger.

If you learn the skill early enough, you will be able to ask for feedback on whether or not you have correctly identified the plants that you have gathered. You may also be able to find a local class or expert who can guide you in foraging for food. Just look for an herbalist or wilderness expert who can teach you the ropes.

Navigate Outdoors without Maps or Roadways

In today’s modern world, if you need to get from point A to point B, you may turn on an app such as Waze to guide you to the location. Or, you may have a GPS product that simply tells you which turn to take on which street.

In a survival situation, you may not have access to such luxuries. In fact, you may not even have a map on hand. You may not be able to travel by a major roadway if it is dangerous, and therefore will not have any signs at your disposal telling you which direction is the correct one.

You need to know how to navigate the outdoors using a simple, small compass that you will keep in your bug out bag. But even then, you may not have access to a compass, so you will have to learn how to navigate according to the sun’s location as well as the constellations in the night sky.

Build a Shelter from Your Surroundings

Building a shelter will be one of the most important things you’ll need to know ahead of time. While you may think you can simply set up a tent anywhere in an emergency situation, that may not be possible.

You might be out in the wilderness without any tools, tents or tarps. You need to learn how to build a shelter from what’s around you – the wood, leaves, moss, mud and other materials provided by Mother Nature.

You need to be able to build shelter for different weather situations, including extreme heat and cold, wind, snow and rain. You also want to be able to build a shelter that camouflages you from detection from other individuals.

There will be some situations where you may have tools at your disposal. It’s a good idea to learn certain carpentry fundamentals so that if you have to build a homestead off the grid and without any professional services, you’ll be able to.

First Aid Training for Minor and Major Injuries

There will be many instances when you are in a survival situation, where first aid is required. From simple sprains to major wounds, you will want to be able to understand how to treat someone without the benefit of a first aid kit.

Even if you do have a first aid kit on hand, many people don’t know how to use the supplies that are inside. So you want to educate yourself about how to use a first aid kit, and how to treat someone without one.

For example, you may need to know how to treat a wound by using nothing more than water and compression. You may need to know how to locate an aloe vera plant or other natural growing plant that can help you administer first aid to someone.

You want to gradually educate yourself on many different first aid situations, including how to recognize when someone is having a stroke or heart attack – and what to do about it if you are unable to take them to a hospital, how to administer CPR, etc.

Self Defense Measures to Keep Your Family Safe

Self-defense is another thing you want to learn prior to a SHTF situation. This is something that can help protect you from unsavory individuals who may want to attack you or take your supplies.

It may also help you in protecting yourself and your family from wild animals if you have to bug out in an area where there are large wild cats, bears, coyotes, feral pigs, and more.

There are many different measures that you can take for self-defense. Some people prefer to learn how to use weapons, such as being armed with a gun or knife. If you are choosing to go this route, you need to make sure that you are well versed in how to use both of these for self-defense.

You also need to know some self-defense tactics if you are caught without your weapon of choice. For example, you may want to learn karate or how to box so that you can eliminate the threat to your family in a safe manner.

This is something that you will need to make sure your family is educated in as well. You don’t want someone who is smaller or weaker to get caught off guard by an attacker and be unable to protect themselves.

Growing Your Own Food from Seed to Table

While foraging for food is a great skill to have, as well as being able to stock supplies, it may not be enough. There will be some long term survival situations where you need to be able to grow your own food from a seed and provide for your family this way.

Some people fail at gardening, not understanding how to keep pests away from their garden plants, not realizing how much sun the plants need, not being able to evaluate the soil, or know when to harvest.

You want to find out what zone you currently live in, or where your future homestead is located, and learn what types of plants you can grow for food, and in what season. Make sure you have plenty of heirloom seeds on hand for this purpose, and store them properly.

Keep in mind that you can’t speed up the growing process, so if you are panicking for food, a garden may not provide you the comfort you are seeking. There are certain plants that grow faster than others, and in addition to these, you will also need to stock up on seeds of plants that provide the most nutritional value.

Hunting and Fishing to Stave Off Hunger and Fill Up on Protein

Foraging for food and growing your own are great ways to take away the hunger you feel in a survival situation. But for energy purposes, you will need to know how to find the protein that will serve your body well.

Hunting and fishing are two skills that you will need to learn before a major event takes place. Even if you are not currently a hunter, you need to learn the skills it takes to trap small animals, clean them, and cook them in a safe manner.

You also want to learn how to fish with and without supplies, depending on what type of situation you are in. While supplies are great, not everyone has access to them in a survival situation, which means they have to rely on the process of noodling or fashioning equipment out of natural items.

Cooking Outdoors Off the Grid

Many people have been camping, and use the convenience of a propane stove to cook the food they need while living in the outdoors temporarily. However, there may be times when you need to cook outdoors on a larger scale, for a longer time.

You may not have the luxury of propane or charcoal to help you build a fire and cook the food for your family. You need to know what types of gear to buy, such as cast iron pots and pans.

These are too heavy and bulky for you to carry with you if you have to bug out. They may be fine for a homestead outdoor cooking purpose, though. If you have to bug out and can’t take your supplies with you, you need to learn how to use things like rocks over a fire or foil pouches to bake your dinner in a fire pit.

The last thing you want to do is become frustrated and feel hopeless trying to cook dinner without access to pots and pans, grills and ovens while you or your loved ones are starving and miserable.

Learning all of these skills ahead of time will give you the peace of mind to know that your family will be taken care of in the event of a major survival situation. Over time, you will want to practice these skills and perfect your own style so that you can quickly and easily implement them whenever the need arises.