Image credit: www.powerhomebiz.com

One of the benefits of the Internet is that you can research anything you are interested in. There is an expansive feeling of knowing that vast quantities of information on practically any subject are available at your fingertips. All information has value, but not all information is valuable i.e. people will not pay money for it.

This is the trap that many fall into when starting out online, believing that a certain type of information is profitable when in reality it is not. The difference comes down to selecting a niche market and determining whether it is profitable or not.

What you will learn

• What a niche market is
• How to select your target audience
• How to identify a profitable niche

What is a niche market?

A niche market is simply a smaller segment of the larger market which focuses on a particular area of interest or demographic. Let me illustrate with two offline business examples in the food stall industry.

Business #1 opens a food stall which offers various items including chicken sandwiches, beef burgers, veggie burgers, fish sandwiches, salads and wraps.

Business #2 decides to “niche down” and selects only fish sandwiches to specialize in. They are able to focus all their effort into making the very best fish sandwich possible, much better than business #1. The final result: people are willing to line up for 45 minutes for the food.

Why is this important? When you narrow your focus and select a more defined area of interest, your effort goes further and a brand begins to form around you. You become known as the “fish sandwich guy” or the “3D printing guy” or the “podcast girl”.

Choosing your niche

Before selecting your niche market and the products or services you wish to sell, we need to look at the people side of the equation. Here is an excellent quote from Chris Ducker that explains why the people are more important than the products.

“Products come and go, but niche audiences stick around forever. If you’ve ever been promoting a product profitably and then had it decline in popularity (or pulled off the market entirely), you know what I’m talking about.

When you choose a niche audience and take the time to understand their needs deeply, a whole new world of options open up to you. You switch from struggling to find ideas for products, to instantly knowing exactly the types of products you should be promoting – because they’re in tune with your niche audience’s needs.”

With this in mind, there are two main groups of people, you and your audience.

You

Businesses are long term ventures which require work and dedication. In many cases there is a prolonged start up period before the first profits come in where entrepreneurs can lose hope and give up. Passion or interest in your niche is extremely important during this time as a non-monetary form of motivation, without it success is very challenging. The first step is to determine what niche you are interested in by answering the following questions:

• What do you like?
• What subject are you interested in?
• What do you spend your free time on?
• What type of products and services do you buy?
• What audience do you represent and can most relate to?

Spend some time thinking about these questions and write out a list of all answers that come to mind for each question. As you compare the answers, some niches or topics will appear more frequently. Start with the one that shows up the most.

Your audience

Now that you have a starting point for your niche market based on your own preference, it is time to see what everyone else thinks. This is important because you can be extremely passionate about a subject that is not very popular or that is popular but not profitable.

For example, someone may love skipping rocks across a pond, but selling an eBook in that niche may not sell well due to lack of popularity and lack of willingness to pay for such information. The popular “do what you love” saying comes with caveats when it pertains to business.

Image credit: www.markstivers.com

Test popularity

For the purposes of this exercise I will use the niche “solar power”

Google check

With Google there are two metrics to give you a sense of the size and popularity of a niche market.

1. The amount of information that is available i.e. search results
2. The number of people searching for this information

You are probably familiar with the first one and have seen it on a regular basis:

A Google search for the term “solar power” returns over 85 million results which is a good sign of popularity due to the quantity of information available.

Next, we will do a bit of keyword research (essentially looking over Google’s shoulder) using Google AdWords Keyword Planner. It is free to use, simply sign in with your Google account information. This next step will allow us to see how many people are searching for information on our particular niche.

The average monthly searches for solar power related terms are in the millions which is another confirmation of a popular niche.

Facebook check

Next let’s check Facebook for social media engagement. A quick search for “solar power” brings up some groups related to this niche, the largest being Solar Power World with over 250,000 fans. There is social popularity.

Amazon check

The final test for niche popularity is whether or not there are any related items listed on Amazon. Sure enough there are nearly 400,000 items for sale on Amazon across all departments, with 25,000 of those being books on solar power.

Get to know your target audience (very important)

I can’t over emphasize how important this step is. Building up a detailed understanding of who is in your target demographic will allow you to make informed decisions on what products and services to offer which will solve their problems, and how to best present that solution.

So how do you know who is in your niche audience? To begin building up a picture of your target audience there are a few websites which give preliminary details. From there it is a matter of refining the information based on your own observation.

High level overview

Google AdWords Display Planner

Head on back over to Google AdWords and select Display Planner from the Tools menu bar. Run the same keyword again and you will be able to see some information related to age range, gender, device and related interests. This is what it looks like for our solar power example.

Alexa

Going back to the original Google search results, we can pick one of the first websites and do an analysis using Alexa.com.

From here we can pull out data on the audience geography, gender, education and browsing location.

SimilarSites

As the name suggests, SimilarSites gives a list of similar websites to the one entered on their page. A section is available that shows other areas of interest to the main topic.

Fine tuning your target demographic

By now a general idea is beginning to form about the target demographic. Now it is time to fine tune it by comparing with on-the-ground information. The best way to know your audience is by interacting with them which will involve the following:

• Read and comment on related blogs
• Join Facebook pages
• Visit forums
• Look at product review comments

As you go through this process and make a note of the type of people you are interacting with, update the high level picture. By going through this iterative process you will gain a better understanding of your audience and be able to fill in information such as:

• Gender
• Age
• Location
• Interests
• Values
• Stage of life (i.e. single, studying, married, parents, retired)
• Products they are buying and the price point

Identify the pain points and goals your niche market has

Having gone through the steps above you will have started to notice some of the most common recurring problems facing your audience as well as their goals. You will see these reflected in the popular blog posts, comments, Amazon reviews, most engaged Facebook posts, Yahoo and Quora answers and in forums.

Make a list of the pain points and the goals. In our solar power example a pain point might be obtaining solar financing, while a goal might be to have an electricity bill of zero.

How to know if your niche is profitable

You have your customer profile for your niche and have identified their problems. Now it is time to see if anyone else is meeting this need by providing solutions and more importantly if your target audience is buying.

Google ads

One of the fastest ways to see if a niche is profitable is simply to do a Google search for the niche and see if there are any Google ads at the top and on the side of the page. Advertisers are willing to pay money to get in front of prospective customers. For our solar power example there are a number of advertisements.

Amazon

Next we head back over to Amazon. As we saw earlier there was a large quantity of items available for purchase and now we can see that those items are being bought due to the reviews. In addition there is a sponsored items section which indicates that sellers are willing to pay extra to have their items displayed on the page.

Affiliate programs

Profitable niches will typically have affiliate programs in place to help market products and services. Google “your niche affiliate” and see what results show up. A “solar power affiliate” search brings up an entire first page of solar affiliate programs and Google ads.

Repeat as necessary

You may need to repeat this niche selection process a few times until you refine exactly which one you want to pursue. This may seem like an arduous process but it is the most crucial aspect of building any business, online or offline.

I believe at its core business is about helping people. The more in tune you are with your target audience, the better you will be able to serve them and they will resonate with your communication regarding the product or service being offered.

What niche did you end up selecting?

How many different niches did you go through before deciding on that one?

Please leave a comment, I would love to hear your experience with niche selection!

The post How to Find a Profitable Niche appeared first on Selling Zeroes and Ones.

You may have heard this term thrown around recently and asked yourself, what is an infopreneur? It seems these days everyone is modifying the word entrepreneur to suit their particular needs. In this case, an infopreneur is an entrepreneur who earns money by selling information or as I like to think of it, selling zeroes and ones. Today, this generally involves an entrepreneur selling information on the Internet.

That does not mean that this type of transaction did not occur in the past. Infopreneurs did not suddenly appear with the advent of the Internet, they were around long before but with different names. Anyone selling information in one form or another is considered an infopreneur. Examples include authors, singers, actors and motivational speakers. They were all selling information in various forms such as text, audio, and video.

“Applied knowledge = power.
Shared knowledge = profits.” – Regina from byRegina.com

Benefits of selling information

• Weightless – therefore can be “shipped” anywhere in the world instantly
• Access to a worldwide marketplace – shipping can sometimes be a limitation to where physical products can be sold as the shipping cost can be extremely high. With information, that restriction is eliminated and access to the entire world market is opened up
• Mass distribution – distribution costs are effectively zero. Whether you sell 10 copies of an information product (e.g. eBook) or 100,000 copies the cost is essentially the same
• 24/7 availability – with a website and an automated order process, information products can be sold 24/7 without the need for human intervention or 9-5 store hours
• Always in stock – no more back orders. Information products are always in stock since digital duplication is effortless

Advantages of being an infopreneur

Adding value to the world by sharing your knowledge and information

But you say “I’m not an expert on anything”. The good news is that you don’t have to be! As long as there is a knowledge gap between yourself and someone else you can share information. Think of knowledge as a staircase with 10 steps. An expert might be at level 10 and you may be at level 2. There are a large number of people at level 1 who would love to learn how to reach level 2. It’s that simple. A practical example is a child who has just learned how to ride a bicycle and can now teach their younger sibling how to do the same thing.

Opportunity to constantly learn and keep up to date with a topic you enjoy, while benefiting financially

Many people graduate university and enter the workforce without ever pursuing additional studies. This can lead to mental stagnation and obsolete job skills which at best limits career options within the company or at worst leads to termination. For those who pursue continuing education within their career field, promotions and pay raises can be expected. This is a better option than the first, but is there a third option which leverages the increased knowledge for a greater financial return? Yes, for example, an infopreneur can start by selling a basic product, gain additional knowledge and create a second, advanced product which is 2X-3X the price of the basic one. The financial return on increased knowledge can be significantly higher when producing your own information products.

Opportunity to start your own low risk, location independent business

Unlike traditional brick and mortar businesses that can involve high risk and are tied to a particular geographical area, an information selling business is low risk and is not constrained to one location. There is learning involved which requires some time investment but the money invested is low. An infopreneur who decides to create an eBook and sell online has risked very little but could potentially grow it into a sizable income stream.

Help make a direct positive impact in peoples’ lives

By sharing your unique experience and knowledge you can help people reach their goals, learn something of interest, save time, save money, or solve a problem. A fan base or audience will begin to form around you who will view you as their go-to person for information on a particular topic. Sharing your information and seeing the direct positive impact you have in the lives of others is very fulfilling.

Two main types of infopreneur

Infopreneurs falls into two broad categories, those who create their own content (content creators) and those who promote other peoples’ content (affiliate marketers).

Content creator

A content creator creates their own information products or services as a result of their own knowledge or by researching and gathering information. A content creator can be the expert or can gather information from experts. For example, a nutritionist can write an eBook about healthy smoothies for people on the move. You don’t have to be the expert, or have any knowledge in the area, to create an information product. How can that be? That’s what I thought until I heard about this brilliant interview technique in a podcast.

A mother was watching her son play baseball and heard some of the other parents complain about how they wanted their children to perform better in the sport. She asked what specific areas they were referring to e.g. pitching, base running, batting etc and made a note of them. She then reached out to a number of coaches and interviewed them about their best advice and techniques to improve in these areas. The interviews were then complied into specific DVDs which she then sold to the other parents. I love that story. She wasn’t a baseball coach herself, she just saw a problem (information deficiency), sought out the experts who had that knowledge, and created the information products.

Affiliate marketer

An affiliate marketer promotes the information products and services of others. We are all promoting various products or services in the offline world without realizing it. When we go to a nice restaurant and recommend it to our friends; when we rave about the new blockbuster movie; or talk about the latest NY Times best seller, we are marketing. The important difference with affiliate marketing is that you are compensated for that marketing and spreading the word.

For example, if you write a review for a book and recommend it to others they can purchase though an Amazon Affiliate link on your blog. They purchase the book, based on your review and you get compensated in the form of a commission. The same thing applies for other items such as online services you may use and online training courses.

Content creators have a higher income earning potential than affiliate marketers however for someone who is just beginning, it is best to start with being an affiliate marketer and gradually move towards content creation. The way I look at it is this, it is a good idea to learn the ropes and learn how to sell someone else’s products first. Then once you are proficient in the area of marketing, you can create your own products and use those developed marketing skills to sell your products.

The best training I’ve seen so far for someone beginning affiliate marketing is Wealthy Affiliate. It is an internet marketing university and also an online business community. They have a free course full of excellent video lessons which teach the basics of setting up an online business: how to build a site, how to begin generating high-quality content, and how to begin optimizing your website’s content for rankings. You can try Wealthy Affiliate 100% risk-free with their free starter account (yes, it’s really free, no credit card required!)

The post What is an infopreneur? appeared first on Selling Zeroes and Ones.

We are living in an unprecedented time where people around the world have an incredible opportunity to pursue their passions and earn an income online. I wrote about this internet opportunity in the Digital Gold Rush post. People from all walks of life and ages are participating in the $4.2 trillion internet economy, some as young as 13 years old!

As with any great opportunity, however, there are people who try to take advantage of others by making grandiose promises which fail to deliver. You may have read or heard some of these get-rich-quick promises:

Stay at home mom makes $700 a day

How I made my first $100,000 in my first month online!

Google sends me cheques while I sleep

The reality is that success in the digital world is the same as in the real world; it requires a plan, hard work, and determination. To earn a decent income online it will require time and patience but it is possible. Below are seven practical ways to earn an income online including examples so you know I’m not making this stuff up!

Article writing

If you love writing but would rather not have the hassle of dealing with maintaining a blog, you could consider article writing. When I first began online I was extremely skeptical that any of this could work so I signed up with InfoBarrel to test it. Writing articles can become time consuming but if you love the topic and are a fast writer this may not be a big concern.

How income is earned: through advertising revenue on article or direct payment for article

Real world example of earning potential: Jason (jcmayer777) earns nearly $3000/month on InfoBarrel

Learn more: List of 37 blogs willing to pay for your blog posts

Blogging

For those who are comfortable with owning their own website and enjoy managing it, a blog is one of the most common ways to earn an income online. The idea is simple, though the implementation can take perseverance. Write blog posts about a particular topic that people are interested in. As more people begin to visit the website to read the blog content, revenue can be generated via advertising on the page. A well known example of this is advertising is Google AdSense.

How income is earned: through advertising revenue from ads displayed on the site

Real world example of earning potential: Pat Flynn’s SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com generated $2,933.72 from Google AdSense in April 2015.

Learn more: Blogging with John Chow

Affiliate marketing

As a blog becomes more popular, it becomes an authority in the space. With a larger number of people visiting the site for a particular topic, the authority of that site becomes more trusted and so to do recommendations. By partnering with digital product and service producers, an authority site can promote those products to their audience and receive a commission, at all no additional cost to the purchaser. This method, known as affiliate marketing, tends to be much more lucrative than simple advertising on a website which has lead to its popularity. Affiliate marketing is one of the main ways people make money online.

How income is earned: affiliate commissions through reader purchases of products or services

Real world example of earning potential: Matthew Woodward made $9,629.72 in affiliate commissions for May 2015

Learn more: Wealthy Affiliate

Membership site

A membership is a somewhat of a step up from a regular blog or even an authority site. With a regular blog or an authority site, you can write and update content whenever you want without much pressure or expectation from your audience. With a membership site however, you are making a commitment to your readers that you will post high quality content on a frequent basis in exchange for a membership fee. So how it works is that you may charge $50/month from each reader, for example. In exchange you give them access to premium content not found on your free blog (if you have one) and perhaps include a member’s area for members to build a community. There is more planning and work involved in this setup but the benefit is the predictable stream of income from registered members.

How income is earned: membership fees on a monthly, yearly or lifetime basis

Real world example of earning potential: Podcasters’ Paradise earned an incredible $392,989 in membership fees for May 2015 based on sales of their $1297 lifetime membership fee.

Learn more: WishList Insider

Online courses

The market for online courses hit $56.2 billion in 2014 and is expected to double in 2015. This is great news for anyone interested in putting their knowledge into a digital format and creating a course. Unlike blogging which requires continuous attention, a course can be compiled, filmed or written or a period of weeks or months. Once this is complete it is a matter of marketing the course to potential students. You can jump straight into course creation and leave the marketing to online academy Udemy (think Amazon but for digital courses).

How income is earned: course fee

Real world example of earning potential: Miguel Hernandez’s $297 Udemy course titled How to Create an Awesome Demo Video for Your Business has 7214 students enrolled generating over $2 million in revenue.

Learn more: How to Create an Awesome Online Course

Coaching

For a more direct approach to earning an income online you can try one-on-one coaching. With video calling programs such as Skype, it is possible to arrange one-on-one coaching with anyone in the world and not be limited to potential clients in your geographical areas. Online coaching can be an excellent way to jumpstart your internet earnings bearing in mind that it will be limited to the number of hours you can commit per day e.g. Celestine Chua, mentioned below, is fully booked for her coaching from May to December 2015. As time goes on coaching can be replaced by some of the more scalable and less time dependent methods described already.

How income is earned: Hourly fee

Real world example of earning potential: Life coach Celestine Chua earns $2388 ($597/month for 4 months) for 8 x 90 minute Skype sessions which works out to roughly $200/hour in coaching fees.

Learn more: How to Build a Sustainable Coaching Business (And Double Your Rates in the Process)

Software

Some people cringe when they hear of software because they assume they need to be a developer or coder to create an application. Although this can be the case, it is not a requirement to have any experience at all with coding software in order to create and sell an application today. Earning an income from online software or SaaS (software as a service) applications has elements of an online course and a membership site. It is similar to an online course in that it is created as a project and similar to a membership site due to the potential for recurring revenue for usage. Software typically is created to solve a specific problem and a monthly fee can be charge for the service. This might be a good fit for those who prefer to work on providing one solution instead of writing various blog posts.

How income is earned: Usually from a monthly service fee

Real world example of earning potential: Carl Mattiola’s software company Clinic Metrics went from $2,700/month in revenue at the launch to become a six figure business in less than a year.

Learn more: Build a software company from nothing…in six months

Well there you have 7 practical ways to earn an income online. Is there a particular one that you liked best? Let me know in the comments.

The post 7 Practical Ways to Earn an Income Online appeared first on Selling Zeroes and Ones.

The rules of the game have fundamentally changed.

A few short years ago, the traditional advice given by society for a successful career was:

• Go to school and get good grades
• Find a job with a stable company with opportunities for advancement
• Work for 20+ years at that company
• Retire and live comfortably on a pension

Due to our rapidly changing world, facilitated by advancements in technology, the traditional advice no longer works. Depending on where you are, that world either no longer exists or is quickly becoming part of history.

Learn to learn

Going to school and getting good grades are still worthwhile pursuits but for different reasons than in the past. Rather than being solely for the purpose of memorizing current ideas and information, the focus has shifted to learning how to learn new ideas and knowing where to search for information. By the time today’s students graduate from a four year university program, information they learnt in the first year may be obsolete, which is why having the mindset of a lifelong learner is so important.

“In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

What happened to my job security?

In the past it was possible to find a stable company that had reasonable prospects for career advancements. You could secure a job and be “safe” from downsizing, wage freezes, company relocation etc while still having the opportunity to move up in the company when the time was right. Those days are gone; the future in even “stable” companies is unpredictable. The only person you can count on when it comes to how you make a living is you.

Who’s going to be working here in 20 years?

On one of my co-op work terms a ceremony was held to commemorate the years of service for employees of the company. The list for 5 years was long, shorter for 10 years, a handful for 15 years and maybe 1 or 2 for 20+ years. An engineer who was hired in my department a few weeks ago, glanced at the same list and said “people won’t see that anymore”. He went on to explain that in today’s fast changing economy, employees might stay at a company for 4-5 years to upgrade their skills then leave for a better position elsewhere, which is what he planned to do. That was in 2006.

Deferred life plan

The entire premise of the traditional life plan, aka the deferred life plan, is that people spend most of their life doing what they don’t want to do in the hopes that they can buy themselves that freedom later in life. A typical example would be someone who works 30+ years at a job they hate or are not passionate about then retires at 65 to really start living and finally having the freedom to do what he is passionate about. There are many points I can touch on here but I’ll just focus on one. Most people today and even more in the future will find that their fixed income pensions cannot pay for the lifestyle (and don’t forget healthcare) that they envisioned while they were working.

Where we are today

Why is being an entrepreneur so popular now? It addresses the changing world.

Entrepreneurship is a mental framework that allows for adaptation to the rapid change occurring in the world. In a society and economy where repetitive manual labour is being replaced by machines and menial mental tasks are being replaced by software, constant learning and adaptation is vital.

Being an entrepreneur and working with technology shatters the old paradigms and eliminates the previous barriers to success, opening opportunities to everyone.

From dropouts to billionaires

Go to school and get good grades – still worthwhile but not essential to success. Some famous entrepreneurs dropped out of school and pursued their passion e.g. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Walt Disney

The world needs entrepreneurs to create jobs

Find a job with a stable company with opportunities for advancement – with an idea and a passion, an entrepreneur can create their own company as opposed to finding one to work with. Here is a quote from Robert Kiyosaki on why the world needs more entrepreneurs today:

“The world economy is in trouble. The world needs jobs. And the world needs entrepreneurs. Governments cannot create real jobs. The world needs entrepreneurs because only real entrepreneurs can create real and sustainable jobs and real, lasting prosperity.

Simply put, when our government creates jobs our taxes increase. When taxes increase, life becomes more expensive, people suffer, our economy suffers, and our country grows weaker. When entrepreneurs create jobs, those jobs generate taxes, our debt goes down, we export, and our country grows stronger.”

Work for life, because you want to

Work for 20+ years at that company – an entrepreneur may create their own company and work for 20+ years or may create multiple businesses during that time (Richard Branson). The difference is that their work is something they are passionate about and actually want to do.

Live your life now, not in the future

Retire and live comfortably on a pension – many entrepreneurs never even use the words retire or pension. They are living the life they want and are not deferring it. The work they do is something they love so they are not looking to “retire” from it. Also if they have created business assets over the years, these will produce cash flow for them so they do not need to rely on pension to meet their financial requirements.

Freedom

This 2013 survey conducted by oDesk shows that the #1 reason people desire becoming an entrepreneur is freedom. Survey takers said they wanted:

• Freedom to work whenever
• Freedom to work wherever
• Freedom to work on something they are passionate about
• Freedom to work while traveling

Image credit: oDesk

Internet entrepreneurs, yes it’s possible

I’ve used examples of some famous entrepreneurs in the paragraphs above which may seem out of reach for most of us. However, the internet has made it possible for people of various backgrounds and ages to earn a living based entirely online. These are people who have the freedoms noted above and have created their own job security. You can read about 10 of these internet entrepreneurs and see the actual income numbers they are generating.

Which is riskier?

• Go to school, get good grades, find a company, work for 30 years, retire and live comfortably on your pension, hoping that everything goes according to plan and nothing changes.

OR

• Learn to learn, build a career around your passion, have the freedom to work anywhere, anytime, and have the ability to adapt to changes when they occur.

It used to be that the first option was a no brainer since it was all but guaranteed while the option of the entrepreneur was perceived as very risky. Today, there is risk in both options however, the first hopes nothing will change while the second embraces change.

You have to take a chance anyway so why not choose the one with the higher potential upside?

The post Why is being an entrepreneur so popular? appeared first on Selling Zeroes and Ones.

Infographic credit: FundersandFounders.com

The infographic above, created by Anna Vital of Funders and Founders, gives an information rich visual of how humans created value and made money. The title is the history of opportunity and what it really shows is the history of entrepreneurship.

One thing to bear in mind is that the infographic is European/North American centred in the portrayal of history. Other countries might have gone through a different developmental process but the general ideas hold true.

12 different periods are depicted in the graphic with corresponding ways to create value.

Hunter

Hunters constantly had to track, chase and kill animals for survival which was unpredictable.

Value: Hunting animals for food

Grower

Growers realized that cultivating plants was a more predictable and stable way to obtain food.

Value: Growing plants for food

Warrior

Warriors who “worked” for the king found it was much quicker to steal the Growers’ food instead of growing their own.

Value: Plundering the land and food resources of others through war

Craftsman

Craftsmen realized that kings and warriors were less likely to steal from them if they strengthened their numbers, formed cities and worked hard to create useful items. With the threat of constant pillaging reduced, people could now focus their time and energy on creating value, thus giving birth to the first entrepreneurs.

Value: Organizing groups of people to live in cities and creating useful items

Explorer

Explorers were formed as a result of numerous like minded people living together in a city. This unprecedented group dynamic facilitated the rapid distribution of new ideas. Bold individuals with a taste for adventure and willing to take a risk ventured out into the “undiscovered” parts of the world. If the journey was successful they returned with precious commodities such as tea, spices, silk and sugar.

Value: Venturing into the unknown world and bringing back precious commodities

Merchant

Merchants continued along the path that the explorers charted. Once a new region was mapped out, merchants were comfortable with establishing trade routes to transport exotic goods from the country of origin to sell in Europe (for example).

Value: Importing foreign goods for sale in the domestic market

Mechanizer

While the explorers and merchants were out conquering the “new world”, the craftsmen were at home in the cities busy perfecting their ability to create which allowed them to create machinery. Mass production had begun.

Value: Ability to make things faster via machines

Industrialist

As improvements were made to the first generation of machines, subsequent machines were faster and therefore able to produce more products in a shorter period of time. Industrialists owned the machines that were taking mass production to the next level.

Value: Creating things even faster than the previous generation of machines

Oil driller

With the discovery of oil, manufacturers built cars and trucks to use this fuel. The need for fuel continued to increase as vehicles became more affordable and the transportation network for various items expanded through the use of trucks. Oil drillers became wealthy during this time.

Value: Providing oil to fuel the transportation sector

Corporate executive

Building on the foundation of a transportation network powered by oil, factories could deliver their products anywhere. With this in mind, they organized themselves into corporations to best distribute their goods. Corporate executives helped to manage this transition from a factory to a corporation and managed the operations of these new companies.

Value: Managing corporations

Financier

As corporations grew in size, they became more value. So much so that bankers viewed the corporations as items to be bought and sold for a profit. With values in the billions, even a small profit margin could make such a transaction worthwhile. Through leveraged buy-outs financiers were able to generate money.

Value: Buying and selling large corporations

Startup Founder

Startup founders take a step outside of the corporate box and search for ways to create useful goods faster and more efficiently than a corporation. Technology is ultimately the greater leveler in this respect. Using the appropriate technology and systems, it is possible for a startup company with a handful of entrepreneurs to outperform a corporation with 10X more people and resources.

Value: Creating useful items faster than a corporation

Well there you have the history of entrepreneurship but believe it or not, all of these forms of entrepreneurship are still present in 2015. You can still be a merchant (importer), industrialist or corporate executive, even a grower if you really wanted to. What you have now is the opportunity to choose which form of entrepreneurship you want to bring value to the world with.

As of 2013, according to the World Bank, the gross world product (GWP) or the value the world created was US $75.59 trillion. You can see from the graph above that the monetary value being created has been increasing rapidly.

At this point in time, an internet entrepreneur selling digital products and services has the greatest potential to scale a business when compared to any of the other alternative types of entrepreneur covered in the graph above. For more information on becoming an internet entrepreneur, grab this free report.

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If you are on this site it means you are interested in starting an internet business which also means you are on the path of being an entrepreneur. But what is entrepreneurship and what exactly is an entrepreneur? My favourite definition comes from Gary Schoeniger who defines it as such:

“Entrepreneurialism is a mindset, it provides a framework for thinking and acting that can empower anyone to succeed”

Gary sums up the entrepreneurial mindset, what it is and what it isn’t in this short video:

The two key words in the definition are “mindset” and “anyone”. Mention the word entrepreneur and most people envision Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg or the cast from Shark Tank. While they are certainly examples of entrepreneurs, they are not representative of the entire category which includes small startups, local businesses and internet entrepreneurs. By only focusing on the extremely successful entrepreneurs, the perception is that it is out of reach for the average person. Thankfully this is not the case as entrepreneurship in its essence is a mindset and like any mindset it can be learned by anyone. This is a powerful realization and a very empowering one.

Image credit: oDesk

There are many aspects of the entrepreneurial mindset however some of the common characteristics are:

Risk-taker

This doesn’t mean jumping out of a plane type risk taker or running head long into danger without a plan. The idea here is to undertake some action which has an unknown or unpredictable outcome yet the potential rewards are worth the risk. Society encourages the deferred life plan of going to school, getting a job, doing something you don’t want for 30 years, retiring then hoping you have enough time and money to live your dreams. Doesn’t that sound like a much more dangerous risk than what entrepreneurs take?

Self-starter

If you have ever gone out there and just started something from scratch you know what this characteristic is all about. Self starters are the ones who just do what needs to be done. No one is giving them permission and they’re not asking for it they just start something. It could be planning an event like a party, a fundraiser, creating a website to draw awareness to a particular cause, or even starting a needed conversation about a pertinent issue.

Visionary

Being a visionary simply involves seeing the future in a novel way. Imagination is an important component of this process. Anytime you think of doing something in a new and different way there is an element of being a visionary. It need not be dramatically different than what has been tried before, as long as it is just unique enough to make a difference.

Opportunity-seeker

Traditionally when people thought of an entrepreneur, the connotation was of a business person starting a company to create massive profits. Although that can certainly be a byproduct or result of being an entrepreneur, most entrepreneurs start out looking for opportunities which later develop into full fledged businesses. Opportunities might involve finding new ways to finance solar projects, creating a social media platform for people to connect with each other or seeing the opportunity to electrify the transportation system. In many cases the opportunity takes time to develop into a profit generating business which is why people who are only looking for immediate profit potential miss out.

Tying it all together: the Virgin Atlantic origin story

Quoted from Richard Branson:

“In ’79, when Joan, my fiancée and I were on a holiday in the British Virgin Islands, we were trying to catch a flight to Puerto Rico; but the local Puerto Rican scheduled flight was cancelled. The airport terminal was full of stranded passengers. I made a few calls to charter companies and agreed to charter a plane for $2000 to Puerto Rico. Cheekily leaving out Joan’s and my name, I divided the price by the remaining number of passengers, borrowed a blackboard and wrote: VIRGIN AIRWAYS: $39 for a single flight to Puerto Rico.”

Risk-taker: No guarantee the charter companies would agree or were available. No guarantee other passengers would sign up. He could have been stuck paying the full $2000 himself.

Self-starter: He made the calls to the charter companies.

Visionary: He used his imagination to envision a new way to solve the problem of being stuck in the airport, by chartering a plane.

Opportunity-seeker: He saw the opportunity in providing a solution to himself and the other stranded passengers. He wasn’t thinking in that moment about starting a multi-billion dollar airline.

The most fascinating part of this story is that ANYONE could have done what he did. It wasn’t rocket science, it didn’t investment capital and it did not require a Master’s or a PhD. Any one of those stranded passengers or even an observer could have thought of this solution. Perhaps they did, but they didn’t follow through and take action like Richard Branson did, they didn’t have the same mindset.

I hope this provides evidence that being an entrepreneur truly is a mindset, a way of thinking, which anyone can learn.

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I was extremely skeptical about the whole concept of earning an income online in 2011. After reading many websites and listening to various podcasts I had found a way to test this idea. The website was InfoBarrel.com which is described as a “user generated content, revenue-sharing website”. In plain English, you write articles, submit them and earn some revenue from the advertising which is displayed on the page.

For me, it was a no risk, free way to try out something online. It was easy too, no need for me to set up a website. I just had to create an account and start writing. Well, actually the one other important step was setting up my advertising accounts. InfoBarrel allows and recommends users to sign up for three advertising accounts, Google AdSense, Chitika and Amazon Affiliates. When someone reads the articles, these ads are shown with the revenue generated shared between the writer and InfoBarrel.

I decided to give it a try and wrote a few articles. They started receiving some views and on July 5, 2011 much to my surprise I earned my first money online, albeit only 1 cent. This was enough to prove to me that it was possible, which was the objective in the first place. The other thing that utterly amazed me was the fact that so many people had read something I had written, at the time the stats for my most popular article showed up in the hundreds.

I haven’t written anything on the site in a few years but the articles are still live and here is a snapshot of the stats from my two most popular articles.

Is InfoBarrel right for you?

If you are searching for a no risk way to try something online and prove to yourself that it is possible, first hand then go for it. You don’t need to be an English major or an accomplished writer (I certainly am not). During the process you will create accounts for Google AdSense, Chitika and Amazon Affiliates which are all transferable and usable for when you move on from InfoBarrel. If you are interested in seeing what it is about and if it is a good fit you for, you can sign up for InfoBarrel here.

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Do you remember the first time you used the Internet? I have trouble remembering since it was so long along and it has become part of my everyday life. What I do remember is the sense of opportunity being able to access more information than any previous human generation; the possibilities were endless.

Fast forward years into the future and what was I doing with this unlimited access to information? My time was spent on research, email, social media and videos; the same thing that the majority of Internet users do.

All of that changed in 2010.

One night while at dinner at Kelsey’s in Newmarket, a friend recommended reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That one book changed my life by shifting my mindset and setting me on a journey of business and entrepreneurship. The path led me to the Internet where my eyes were opened to the reality that some people weren’t simply passing time “surfing the Net”, they were making money….and good money too!

I started following various personalities online to learn what was possible. It is here that the biggest stumbling block occurred, information overload and not taking action. Some call it paralysis by analysis. There was (and still is) so much information available that the old strategy of learning and then doing no longer works, you must learn while doing. I eventually realized it was time to take action and jumped in by writing an article for InfoBarrel.com.

On July 5, 2011 I made my first one cent on the Internet.

You were expecting a larger number right? It sounds like a negligible amount but I was ecstatic, it was proof that it really was possible. I was the most skeptical person about the entire concept which is why I choose the lowest risk option (at the time) to test whether or not this Internet economy stuff was “real”. Once that tiny piece of proof came in, a whole new world opened in my mind. If I can make one cent, can I make a $1, what about $10 dollars, a $100, a $1000? What is the most effective and efficient way to do this? What methods are others using and how can I learn from them?

I have gone on to learn many new things along the journey since then. The main purpose of SellingZeroesAndOnes is to share that information with you. To pass along the information I have learned, what worked, what didn’t work and the tools and resources I have found helpful.

Enjoy the rest of the site!

The post How I got started on the Internet appeared first on Selling Zeroes and Ones.

This post assumes you’ve read my “Income reports of 10 Internet Entrepreneurs” post.

When I first read these income reports questions popped into my head, questions you may have as well:

How is this even possible?

Through the opportunity of the internet – mass distribution of digital products and services to a global marketplace.

Why would they even publish how much they make?

The short answer is usually for transparency. We don’t bat an eye when the average salary of professions is posted so why should this be any different? Well the real difference is that in a traditional job as an employee, the company and industry dictates and sets how much you get paid. Someone else is telling you what you are worth and the upper limit to how much you can make. Even with raises, promotions, bonuses etc as an employee there is still an upper limit set by your company and industry.

As an entrepreneur there is no ceiling, conversely though there is no floor either so watch out. What these reports online are really showing is that there is no set point or starting salary for the online business industry. It is whatever you make of it; you have to put in the work. You can be making $5/month, $500/month or $5,000/month. It is all up to you. The reports in the previous post show the range from about $400/month all the way up to $150,000/month.

Are people really making that much money online?

Yes, yes they are. Most are not making insane amounts of money but there are people generating a substantial income from selling digital products and services online.

Then I thought:

I don’t trust it; maybe all these income reports are lies. I mean no one is verifying them, they must be fake. Then I thought, but why would someone and so many people, waste precious time creating fake information like that?

Also I felt a mix of inspiration and envy. Why were they able to do that and not me? A battle was taking place in my mind and might be in yours right now too. Doubt and envy on one side, hope and inspiration on the other. What if this is possible? I’m looking at the proof from various people so I know this is true and it is possible. Then the question becomes, can it be possible for me? Can I achieve these same results or even 10% of that (I used to look at Pay Flynn’s numbers and say that; if I could only make 10% of that or even 1% it would be amazing)

I have good news; you can achieve those types of incomes in the reports. Knowing that others have done it makes it possible for you as well. Below is a video which shows how powerful of a motivation it can be to see someone else accomplish a goal you are striving for as well. It is the story of how Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile, which had been considered physically impossible by the human body. Since that time in 1954, at least 20,000 other people accomplished the same feat because they knew it was possible for them also.

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I believe in providing hard, concrete evidence to support claims. If you are reading this page, you are either 1) looking for real proof that it is possible to build a successful online business, or 2) you already believe it and are seeking inspiration. You’ll find both here. And I’m not talking about those scammy ads we’ve all seen online with some stay at home mom or unemployed student claiming to make a bazillion dollars an hour, no I’m talking real numbers and real people.

I have arranged the list in order of increasing income; if you are in a hurry, jump to #1 for my personal favourite.

Website: my4hrworkweek.com

Who: Eric is a part time blogger who works full time as a CPA (tax accountant) in Chicago.

Niche/topic: Time and money management

Income report:

• Month: November 2014
• Total income: $436.36

Website: dumbpassiveincome.com

Who: Matthew Allen is a part time internet marketer in Michigan who still has his day job, and you won’t believe what he does…he’s a truck driver, and he loves it!

Niche/topic: Passive income online

Income report:

• Month: March 2015
• Total income: $1,538.56

Website: viralblogtips.com

Who: Bishal Biswas is an entrepreneur, writer and blogger based in India. (when I read his bio I nearly fell off my chair after seeing his age…he’ll be 13 this year, 2015!!!)

Niche/topic: Internet marketing

Income report:

• Month: March 2015
• Total income: $3,386.00

Website: acoupletravelers.com and avocadopesto.com

Who: Dave and Vicky, a couple who decided to take a two-year travelling trip through Asia and Europe and blog about the experience.

Niche/topic: Travel and food respectively

Income report:

• Month: December 2013
• Total income: $9,610.00

Website: matthewwoodward.co.uk

Who: Matthew Woodward is a British blogger who helps people gain traffic and increase sales on their website.

Niche/topic: Internet Marketing

Income report:

• Month: March 2015
• Total income: $12,215.22

Website: Shoutmeloud.com

Who: Harsh Agrawal is an engineer turned professional blogger who lives in India and has built a very popular blog.

Niche/topic: Internet Marketing

Income report:

• Month: March 2015
• Total income: $15,313.41

Website: byregina.com

Who: Regina writes a marketing blog for bloggers and creative entrepreneurs.

Niche/topic: Internet Marketing

Income report:

• Month: January 2015
• Total income: $16,382.91

Website: moms-make-money.com

Who: Deby is a mommy blogger who shares her internet marketing secrets with her readers.

Niche/topic: Internet Marketing

Income report:

• Month: January 2015
• Total income: $18,376.70

Website: pinchofyum.com

Who: Lindsay and Bjork are a husband and wife team that write and post photographs of yummy food. Lindsay was an elementary school teacher while doing part time blogging at night but made the switch to full time blogging in June 2014. The freedom of an online business allowed them to spend a year in the Philippines, living and teaching at an orphanage.

Niche/topic: Food

Income report:

• Month: March 2015
• Total income: $25,364.51

And finally, #1 and my personal favourite….

Website: smartpassiveincome.com

Who: Pat Flynn is a regular guy living in Southern California who makes a living on the internet. He got started on the journey of online business after getting laid off as an architect in 2008 when the economy imploded.

Niche/topic: Online passive income

Income report:

• Month: March 2015
• Total income: $153,397.47

No, that isn’t a typo. He really did make $153,397.47 in one single month. Pat Flynn is an outlier and his results are definitely not typical however it goes to show that technically it is possible to make such unbelievable amount of income online.

How I first heard of Pat Flynn and Smart Passive Income

After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad (resources page) in 2010, my mindset shifted and I began searching for information on various new ideas. Since I was spending about 45 minutes each way on the TTC for my commute, I decided to load up my iPod mini with business and entrepreneurship podcasts to listen to. When I searched iTunes for business, The Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn was either right at the top or very near it. That’s how I first started following Pat and was very impressed with his transparency and authenticity.

Summary

I hope I have done a good job providing proof that it is possible to earn an income online. You can visit each site and see their individual income reports with the exact breakdown. You can see that these are regular people, not the expected suit and tie business people we think of when those high incomes are mentioned. This is a very small subset of the internet entrepreneurs who are online today and yet you can see the diversity amongst them.

Here is a summary of the people on the list and some characteristics:

• 2 women
• 2 people in India
• 1 person in the UK
• 2 couples
• 2 part time bloggers
• 1 person as young as 12
• 1 used to be a teacher
• 1 used to be an engineer
• 1 was laid off as an architect
• 1 couple has the freedom to take a 2 year vacation
• 1 couple had the freedom to spend a year in the Philippines and teach in an orphanage

Just based on these 10 examples, can you relate to any of these stories or do you share something in common with any of the people? Let me know in the comments section.

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