I’m a Baby Boomer internet marketer. My mission is to keep you from
learning everything the hard way like me and help to get you to your
goals of financial independence and time freedom. I hope this guide to start an online business clicks with you.
The Baby Boomer generation has a lot of people who are way behind in
their retirement plans. If that’s you, I’m here to help you play “catch up”
by showing you how to start and run your own internet business.
Sidebar:
Some people reading this are very, very new to the internet and know
nothing about links and finding their way around the internet so let me
help you out real quick.
The blue underlined words like this one Finally! Wealthy Affiliate that
you’ll come across in this eBook and anywhere you travel on the world
wide web are known as clickable links which you, obviously, click on to
check out that particular recommendation.
OK, you more experienced people, stop laughing! Let’s not forget where we came from:)
Alright, back to my story.
The reasons that I wanted to write this eBook are numerous, but mainly I
wanted to try and make the road to starting an online business a little less
bumpy. Especially for the “older” generation like myself and for people
who didn’t grow up with a pacifier in one hand and a laptop in the other.
From Transistor Radios to the Internet
I was interested in computers from the very first time I saw one. I think
it was the speed at which computers did things that got my interest up. I
loved The Jetsons when I was growing up:) I just think technology is
cool and I’m fascinated by everything that’s going on.
Being a baby boomer myself, when I started messing around with
computers, I was lower than beginner level, if there could be such a
thing. I didn’t know any more than how to turn it on…and somebody
had to show me how to do that.
Help To Start An Online Business
If you want and/or need to do some financial “catch up” but can’t see
yourself building a business and your potential financial freedom on the
internet, you should really look twice…or three or even four times. I am
here to tell you that anything can be accomplished. You just have to
really want it.
I’m 66 at the time of this writing. Born on on February 17th, 1955, I live
in Abilene, Texas after being transplanted here from Las Vegas, Nevada.
I left Las Vegas because I was ready for a major change, and boy is this
a major change. I’ve been here since August of 1998 and it’s really
grown on me, especially since I met and married the love of my life,
Kim. We just had our 20th anniversary on August 19th of 2020.
So, if you are a baby boomer and/or, as a lot of people like to call
themselves, computer illiterate, there’s hope for you. Listen, if I can get
to where I am from where I came from, anyone can, and I do mean
anyone. I can promise you only one thing and that is if you want to
succeed in having your own online business, you simply have to want it.
I don’t mean a half hearted “yea, let me try it and see how it goes”.
No, I mean you have to have a reason, otherwise known as your “why”.
You will run into a lot of roadblocks if you’re anything like I was, not to
mention the fact that anything worthwhile and lucrative is usually an
uphill battle. If the path to getting rich was easy, everyone would be
rich, right?
If your “why” is not big and strong enough, you’ll quit. But if that
“why” is big enough, you will succeed. Am I preaching:)?
Why Did I Choose To Start An Online Business?
Well, that’s a dumb question. Why did you …oh, you didn’t ask, sorry:)
As I told you earlier I’m from Las Vegas. Actually, I wasn’t born and
raised there. I claim it as my home because I lived there longer than I
lived anywhere else before Abilene (about 20 years). I’m a military brat
so I had to claim somewhere. I was actually born in Florida.
Ok, got that straightened out, right?
Anyway, the lifestyle that you would imagine someone living in Las
Vegas is exactly the one I lived. I mean, come on, I was a radio DJ, a
casino bartender and a limousine driver. Not all at once now, at different
periods of my reign of terror. I used to tell people that I went to Las
Vegas for the weekend and stayed for 20 years, which, essentially, is
true.
Business Opportunity Ideas VS Senior Job Opportunities
So the question that somebody asked;) was why did I start an online
business. The answer to that is simply…I spent all of my money. I didn’t
even start thinking about money and retirement and having a “nest egg”
to retire on until I was in my late 50s.
When I did start to think about it I thought, oh man, I’ve only got a few
years to that proverbial “golden age” of 65. How in the world am I going
to save enough money to live on in my golden years. Even if I could
work 4 or 5 jobs, I still wouldn’t be able to save enough money.
With all due respect to anyone who is of retirement age and putting in an
honest day’s work, I just wasn’t interested. Not only did I not want to
work with a bunch of snotty nosed kids, I needed something faster and
much more lucrative. I had some serious catching up to do.
That’s when I started looking to the internet and learned about affiliate
marketing and all of the other great opportunities that are available.
Network marketing is also very popular online now. I knew about that
already from the offline world and had dabbled in it a little bit with zero
success. In fact, it wasn’t until I got online that I found out, everything
my offline mlm upline taught me was wrong.
But that is not what this eBook is solely about. This eBook is only about
getting established online with the right tools, in whatever type of
business you’re interested in.
Now that you’re one of my friends though, you’ll be exposed to more education and opportunities through my emails and the great people I recommend and highly endorse over at Wealthy Affiliate. Which, by the way, you can start for free. But, as I said, this is just to get you started.
I’m going to make sure you steer clear of the “get rich by Tuesday” and
the “push-button” crowds too. As you may know, there are a lot of them
around. There are no roads to overnight, get rich quick schemes and if
you see anyone saying that, run the other way.
The California Gold Rush of 1849
Actually the first gold was discovered there in 1848 but the hoards of
people didn’t start coming until 1849, thus the name they were given,
forty-niners.
I mention this era because although a lot of people were there for the
gold, another group of people were there to supply the 49ers with the
tools they needed to find their gold. You know, shovels, pick axes,
dynamite and food supplies.
That’s kind of my position here (although if you’re looking for
dynamite, I’m not your guy:). I want to give you the road map and the
tools you need to get your own online business started. But you need to
find and mine your own gold. Don’t worry, you won’t be left feeling like
someone dropped you off in the middle of the desert.
When you start getting into the tools and information you need and you
really begin to focus in on exactly the type of business you want,
everything will become more clear and at some point, you won’t need
me any more:( Man, are you cold:)
Do You Have Any Idea What You Want To Do?
One of the little tidbits of advice that I sort of ignored at first and wished
I hadn’t was, do something that you are really interested in, or that you
love, even. You are going to feel like you are trudging through the mud
at times in building your business. The more interested you are in the
type or topic of your business, the better chance at success you will
have.
A good way to measure and decide that is to think of something you
already do or would do for nothing. If there is a way to monetize it, you
have your business theme.
If you really don’t at least have some interest in your subject matter, the
higher the chance is that you’ll quit. That also goes back to having a big
enough “why”. If your “why” is really big and your interest is at least,
medium, you’ll probably be okay.
Will My Baby Boomer’s Business Opportunity Be Free?
I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings but I will if it slaps you into
reality. Take a look at this list from Entrepreneur.com under the title of
“low cost franchises”.
Top 10 Low Cost Franchises for 2019
RANK FRANCHISE NAME STARTUP COSTS
1 Vanguard Cleaning Systems $8.08K – 38.1K
2 Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l. Inc. $3.15K – 50.41K
3 Kumon Math & Reading Centers $67.76K – 145.32K
4 Jazzercise Inc. $2.98K – 76.5K
5 Stratus Building Solutions $3.45K – 57.75K
6 CleanNet USA Inc. $6.66K – 92.95K
7 H & R Block $35.51K – 136.2K
8 Bonus Building Care $9.02K – 41.92K
9 System4 $6.16K – 37.75K
10 ServiceMaster Clean $48.86K – 161.13K
So it’s going to cost you about $3K for the lowest of the “low cost
franchises”. There is no doubt you can get an online business, your own
work from home opportunity, for under $1K and in a lot cases, under
$500. The bottom line is you are going to pay the price for your own
home business with either time or money or both. Count on both.
You should know better anyway. There is nothing good and worthwhile,
when it comes to business and creating wealth that is free. Ask any
successful business person and they’ll tell you that they’ve never worked
harder in their lives. BUT! Here’s the difference; you’re doing it for you
and your family. Is that worth the price? You bet it is.
If you follow directions and actually do the work that it takes to succeed,
it won’t be long until you are bringing in your first affiliate commissions
and you can re-invest those right back into your business and marketing
costs.
If you are a network marketer and build your sales funnel right, one or
more of those affiliate commissions is called a funded proposal;
basically you earn money even from the people who say no to your
primary mlm opportunity and those funds can be invested back in to
your marketing efforts. Is that cool or what?
If you have no idea what I just said don’t worry about it right now. You will if and when you get to that point.
Getting back to the franchise deelywhopper, not only do you have to try
to find something that you would like, you have to conduct the business
the way someone else tells you to do it. “But it’s a proven business and
you have to do it that way to be successful”. Bull-oney! (you like that
word?:)
If you’re ok with all that a franchise brings, you might as well go and get
a job. You can collect a paycheck and not have to spend your whole life
at the store…NO, thank you.
If you think or expect to start, run and maintain a home office business
on the internet for no money, you’re delusional. You have to be realistic.
Any business is going to have costs. It really does take money to make
money. But, you can write off part of your home and other expenses
with the IRS.
One thing is for sure though, getting a business going online is a far
sight less costly than a franchise or any other brick and mortar type of
business AND you can do whatever you want. Still, there are thousands
of people every day searching for a “free online business”. As they say
in gangsta-land, Fuhget about it!
So What Does It Take To Start An Online Business?
What do we need to start our online business? Well, we need a website
for sure, right? There are two things that are must-haves to go along with
that website too. You need a domain name and you need someone to
host it for you.
Domain Names, Hosting and Word Press
There are really a couple of ways to go about doing this. You can choose
a hosting company which is also where you’ll buy your domain name.
For this method I’m going to highly recommend that you choose a
hosting company that will install a WordPress Blog for you too.
Nowadays I think just about all of them do. In taking this route I suggest
getting your domain and hosting all in one shot with Wealthy Affiliate.
At Wealthy Affiliate you can get your domain name, your Word Press
Blog and they’ll host it all for you. In fact, you can learn everything you
need to know there about affiliate marketing. It truly is a one stop shop.
When deciding on your domain name, take your time (not forever:)
because you want to get the best name possible to reflect what your site is about.
Big Time Hint: About half the people you ask will say this is true, the other will say it’s BS. Whatever. It won’t hurt though so decide for yourself. Here it is; Try to get a domain which has your main keyword in it.
Say you’re selling socks for fish, you could choose www.socksforfish.com or www.fishsocks.com . Doing this is great for SEO or search engine optimization. It helps your ranking on the SERPs or the Search Engine Results Pages. Or not:) Get what I mean?
Who’s Going to Show Me How to Do WordPress?
I have to say though, that getting a WordPress site installed and done
automatically by your hosting company doesn’t help you much when
you get into the WP back office.
It can be pretty confusing and of course, the newer you are the more
confusing it will be. But, I have a solution for that too. Wealthy
Affiliate.
In the original version of this book I had a long list of different providers
for different products. I mean you had to run all over the place to get the
things you need to succeed…not any more.
Seriously, from the results of the survey I did with my subscribers a
while back, there are a lot of pretty new and inexperienced people who
want to make it in their own business on the internet. So I want to make
this learning experience as painless and inexpensive as I can.
Internet Marketing Training for the Technically Challenged
You don’t have to feel bad or embarrassed about being technically
challenged. Lord knows there was no one more technically declined than
me. Like I said earlier, when I first got near a computer someone had to
show me how to turn it on! It’s like I always say “It’s impossible to
know what you do not know”:)
I have heard the same questions over and over again from many newbies
on how to set up their online business. Things like…
How do I register a domain name?
What the heck is ‘DNS’ and how do I change them?
How do I register a web hosting account and get my site set up?
How do I install popups on my website?
How can I let customers automatically download my product?
How do I set up an autoresponder?
How do I process my orders?
How do I setup my order links?
How can I upload files to my webpage?
How do I set up a squeeze page?
What the heck IS a squeeze page?
How do I create a MySQL database?
Can you install this script for me?
But I Don’t Want to Learn and Do All That Stuff Myself
Nowadays you don’t have to. You can learn literally everything you need
to learn with Wealthy Affiliate . Get this, once you decide on a domain
name they’ll install your website for you in about 30 seconds!
They’ll take you by the hand and teach you step by step how to add all
the info you need to make it your very own online business. Like I said,
one stop shop…it’s amazing!
Content Is King
If, during your own home business on the internet venture, you hear the
above statement once, you’ll hear it a thousand times. You’ll hear it
because it’s true. Think about it. What is the internet? It’s nothing but
content, information. If you’re going to be part of it, you’ll have to
contribute your content.
Once you have your site all set up and ready to go you are going to have
to put something on it. The internet is all about content, useful content
that is. You have to provide content that people are interested in and are
searching for. Something that can help them with whatever it is they
need help with. (wow, that’s deep:)
But I Can’t Write, I Can’t Spell!
Wealthy Affiliate has a feature on the platform called SiteContent and it
can make you look like a real pro because it will help you to simplify your
writing, improve accuracy, increase efficiency, set and meet goals and
organize all of your writing activities in one central place.
How Do I Come Up With Stuff?
Sometimes, even when you’re pretty much an authority on a subject it’s
hard to put words together on a page. Or what if you don’t really know
too much about the subject matter that you decide to build a business
about?
There are solutions, believe me. There are people all over the internet
whose business it is to provide content to people like you and me. There
are PLR (Private Label Content) sites where you can get content, put
your name on it and call it your own.
Wealthy Affiliate has a list of PLR websites you can go and check out.
Some are good, some are not up to date and therefore, not so good.
There are a few on the list I recommend and I’ll list them here in order of
preference. (This list is subject to change for a variety of reasons)
You never want to just post PLR as is though. You should always go through it and change some words and sentences around and try to turn
it into your voice, make it your own.
You will probably hear other people tell you it’s ok to use the PLR as is
but I wouldn’t do it and recommend you don’t either, but it’s up to you.
What Can You Do with PLR?
Once you understand the concept behind PLR articles, you can see why
they are appealing. Most people can envision the value of adding the
articles to their websites. But, did you know there are more ways to use
PLR articles than that?
Add them to your blog.
Similar to adding PLR articles to your website, you can take
excerpts and use them on your blog for fresh content. Whether you
take a portion and use it as a “tip of the day” or use the entire
article, PLR articles can be a huge time saver for you.
Send them in your newsletter.
Need content for your newsletter? PLR articles are an option. Of
course, if you’re developing a relationship with your readers, you
may wish to edit the articles to make them your own voice.
However, you can pull a section from a PLR article – use it as
inspiration — and whip out a newsletter in minutes.
Start an ecourse
If you purchase a package of PLR articles based on a theme, it’s
quite easy to turn them into an ecourse simply by adding them to
your auto-responder. Something as simple as “Five Ideas for Kids
Lunches” can become a 5 day ecourse to grow a big newsletter list.
Use them in your podcast
Take a PLR article and use it as inspiration for a podcast. Add the
content and you’re done.
Send them in a print mailing
Direct mailing is huge. If you have a list of postal mailing
addresses, put together a free report from PLR articles and send it
out.
Create a special report
Simply bulk together some PLR articles that have the same topic,
and make them flow into a special report. Turn it into a pdf file and
give it away to your website visitors.
See how easy that is? The only hard part is finding a PLR service that is
high quality and fits your niche. Well, that is usually the hard part for
people who don’t have this eBook:)
There are a LOT of PLR sites around, some good, some just crap (that’s
a technical term:) If I run across any other top notch PLR sites I’ll pass
them along to you.
What in the Heck is An Autoresponder?
If you are already on someone’s mailing list, or subscriber list you’ve
experienced an autoresponder. It’s an ingenious invention and it is the
life-blood of most online businesses. If you are going to start an online business, you need one.
When you have some content on your site and you start to get people
coming to visit, you don’t want them to just leave when they’re finished
never to be seen or heard from again.
That’s where your autoresponder comes in. An autoresponder helps you
to stay in touch with them and, at the same time, gives them useful
information along the lines of whatever your website is about. If you
have a site about golf, you don’t want to be sending them info about
fishing.
The basic idea behind an autoresponder is to offer people something
valuable (don’t worry, valuable doesn’t mean expensive, could even be
free for you) in exchange for their email address.
Your autoresponder is also where you can offer your subscribers
products and or services that will help them to accomplish their goals.
You can join affiliate programs and try to interest your subscribers in the
products the vendor is selling from which you receive a commission.
Be sure, though, that you’re sending useful and helpful information.
There’s enough junk on the internet and you and I don’t need to add to
it.
The only one that I recommend is AWeber. It’s perfect for beginners and
grows with you as your business grows. AWeber’s email marketing
software makes it easy. Learn how they can do it for you, too. At the
time of this writing you can start with them for free as well.
You might be able to find a free autoresponder if you search enough for
one. As tempting as that might be for someone just starting out, I would not advise doing that though. It will end up being a lot more problematic
than you can imagine. Don’t forget; you do get what you pay for.
Voila! You’ve Got Your Own Online Business Basics
You’re ready to start making some money once you get these few things
done. These are the basics no matter what type of business you want to
have.
Like I said earlier, as a friend of Finally! Wealthy Affiliate and Fund Your Lifestyle you’ll
continue to receive information to help you in your online business.
Some things will be just straight info to help you along and some things
will be additional opportunities so that you can add more income
streams.
The more income streams that you have, the better off you’ll be. If one
of them goes down for whatever reason, you’ll still have money coming
in from other sources.
If your plans are to learn and teach internet marketing, don’t let anyone
tell you that it can’t be done. Some people will try to tell you that there’s
no room for you in internet marketing. I’ll give you one guess why they
tell you that. That’s right, they don’t want more competition. There are certainly easier topics to start an online business though. There is a lot of competition in that area.
So what is the most important thing to do right now?
START!
With Wealthy Affiliate you have just about all, if not all, of the most
important step by step tutorials that you’ll ever need. I’ll tell you
something else too; the old saying “it’s easy when you know how”?
Well, it is.
It’s an amazing feeling when you want to do something but don’t know
how; but then you learn how to do it and WOW! You get the feeling that
absolutely nothing can hold you back. It’s true, there’s only one thing in
the world that can hold you back and that one thing is you. Take
responsibility for your life and just go and do it.
You are probably already a friend of Finally! Wealthy Affiliate because
that’s how you got this eBook. This is your gift for entering your email
address on my site.
If you somehow got this eBook without the benefit of signing up on just
go ahead and click here and get signed up. You’ll get some very helpful
information. If you don’t like it there’s an unsubscribe link in every
email you get from me.
I am here for marketing guidance. You have all the “how to” tutorials
you need to get started. This is the end of this eBook but it’s just the
beginning for you.
I can’t wait to hear your success stories. I’ll be waiting for them. Make
yourself proud of YOU. Show yourself and the world that it can be done
with persistence and perseverance.
Feel free to pass this eBook along to your friends. The easiest way
would be to just send them to Finally! Wealthy Affiliate and they can
sign themselves up to receive their own eBook. And when you’re ready
to get started building your own online business just go to Wealthy
Affiliate and they will get you fixed up right away.
Talk to you later,
Roger
P.S. You can contact me by using one of the methods below.
Roger@finallywealthyaffiliate.com
325-267-8793
Finally! Wealthy Affiliate
Wealthy Affiliate
Legal Junk
THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY:
While all attempts have been made to verify information provided, neither I, nor any ancillary party, assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contradictory interpretation of the subject matter herein.
Any perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable laws, in no event shall Roger Blackwell, agents or suppliers be liable for damages of any kind or character, including without limitation any compensatory, incidental, direct, indirect, special, punitive, or consequential damages, loss of use, loss of data, loss of income or profit, loss of or damage to property, claims of third parties, or other losses of any kind or character, even if Roger Blackwell has been advised of the possibility of such damages or losses, arising out of or in connection with the use of any web site with which it is linked.
Some of the URLs in this book are affiliate links, which means that I may earn a commission if you buy a product through a particular link. This is an example of affiliate marketing in action and that’s what it’s all about, right?
