WANTED: Your Participation - The info in this post could make you money

Forum "Friends"

Thanks for checking out this Entry.

Please take your time and see your Payout further on. YOu may get a Brain Explosion.

It is said, where there is little to lose by trying and Much to gain, then by all means Try. And it is That Thought I'd like you to keep with you as you go over these words...

On this and other Boards, we often mention Interesting businesses and business ideas. However, a lot of those businesses and ideas are really Population Dependent - you need to live in a suitably large town/city for the idea to work, because it just won't work in Small Town USA. Not enough to Make A Living (MAL).

And we talk about Home Based businesses. But again, running a business from home could be applied to any Builder, Carpet Cleaner, Pest Guy and so on. Their businesses are Home Based (Based/Operated from the Home). And as such, they are also Population Dependent.

Even some of the quirky money making things (I recall one about taking photos of car crashes, or selling a Kit to drivers to keep in the glove compartment in case of crashes) require a Large Population Base to be profitable.

And so we then have the Make Money Online (MMO) idea. Where we can Stay Home and make our money. Enabling us to live just about anywhere, including that mythical hammock on the beach. But the MMO crowd is somewhat circular - make money online selling info on how to make money online... arrrrggghhhhh.

And I am wondering if the Wrong Question has been Asked all this time. Instead of the usual Forum Question of "how can I make money at home" or "how can I make money online" - which are somewhat general and vague - I am thinking a slightly Different Question needs to be asked. Such as...

"How can I generate an income (MAL) no matter Where I live?"

Or more specific...

"How can I make $X a year no matter Where I live?"

And even more specific...

"How can I make $X a year starting with less than $X no matter Where I live?"

See the difference from the Original "how can I make money at home" question. Answers to which include...

Home typing, home sewing, home dress making, drafting house plans from home, home office psychology service, home massage therapy room, home worm growing, home woodworking, and so on and so forth.

Answers to the "how can I make money online" Restrict you to selling downloadable information, software and site access - either stuff you create yourself or as an affiliate. And can take as much time, and in some cases more time, than a normal offline job. Something Ricky Higgs alluded after he appeared from nowhere, sold his MMO ebook and then subsequently disappeared as if he'd never been. Discovering for himself about the Myth of the Online Megabucks, that it was Easier to Work A Job for the same money (get up, go to work, come home is easier than learning all about webpage and search engine optimising, marketing via forums and email and so on).

And while everyone Can write a Hotsheet, many people don't want to or simply won't. Maybe they can't write well, or feel that way. Maybe they can't be bothered. Or have their own reasons. Other's can't be bothered to learn to write software Code, or spend money at rentacoder or elance to have something created that might not fly. Creating a site, or selling anything as an affiliate is, again, something they might not want to bother with - requires all that website registration, email list building and marketing and stuff.

I once asked, "If you were totally restricted to marketing only to people in LA, would you even bother starting a Direct Marketing/Mailorder business"? I asked because that is the reality of people in Australia, as far as population goes. And it's even worse for people in New Zealand with a population of around 3 million all up.

And again we find, all the Business Ideas are Population Dependent. So if you live in tiny Tonasket in Washington State with a population of 995, any "sew from home" or home-based pest business or whatever, just ain't gonna enable you to MAL. You can do that IF you live in a town/city with a large enough population to allow you to do that, but not from any small town.

And That's why I ReFormulated the question. So an Answer to it would help a City Dweller as well as a Small Town Dweller. The question again...

How can I generate an income (MAL) no matter Where I live?"

Or more specific...

"How can I make $X a year no matter Where I live?"

And even more specific...

"How can I make $X a year starting with less than $X no matter Where I live?

And I'd like to Throw Open the question to YOU. And ask to think Beyond my examples below - although Expanding or Adding To those examples is fine. And while it'd be great if you would share your answers to the question, if you don't want to, then don't. But at least try to answer the question For Yourself.

I feel The Usual Suspects will be the only ones to Chime in. But even if you are a lurker who has never posted before, jump in even as a Guest and offer a thought.

My preliminary and general anwers include...

Finding. Jim Straw's written The Bible on Finding, in case you want to know more. And the way I see Finding is this... if a person is Willing to Spend 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year (2000 hours in total) for $30k, then they should be willing to spend the same amount of time to Find something which will also make that, and certainly which will make a Lot more. Yet they won't. A 1% fee on a million dollar machinery deal is $10k. An amount which would take 4 months to make in a job but which people won't bother Finding if they haven't done so in a couple of weeks. Go figure.

Toll Positions. Similar to Finding but with Ongoing Residuals - something which Could be put into place with items you find. Toll Story...

Guy is in Germany on vacation. Sees a product not being sold Outside of Germany. ASKs if he can acquire the World Wide rights for $100,000. They accept. He puts down $1,000 deposit, with the rest to be paid in 6 months. Has a lawyer draw up Country Rights and sells 80 country rights for $25,000 a pop, making him a cool two million smack-a-roos, and pays the remaining $99k for his rights. But the deal is better still because he also gets five cents for each Unit sold. If they sell a million a year he makes an extra fifty grand - a grand a week, easy money.

Import/Export. Like Finding, Jim Straw has a work on this too, in case you want to know more. Though his work covers Exporting more than Importing, which is fine. And if exporting, like finding, you find an overseas buyer and put the deal together (to put it simply and without going onto those "how to" details). But here is a variation on how one guy did it...

He found a supplier of a product overseas. He got prices from them. Added on his Profit and then Physically went and Got Orders From Retailers. When the combined orders totalled a Shipping Container Full he brought it in, then distributed them to his customers. He made a Killing on each container - in fact doing this made him a multi-multi-millionaire in a couple of years - but it did require him to Travel. Travel to make the sale and travel to deliver the goods once they had arrived.

Another guy would ASK Permission to supply Samples and Prices for Blazer Badges. If agreed to his request the Client would Send him a Badge Sample (an image was fine) and he would send the sample to Several businesses in Pakistan and India and request they make Samples (so he could see their work quality) and provide prices. He'd take the Best Quality and Price, add his Profit and then Send the Sample to the client with a Bid. He knew nothing about making such badges and owned no badge making equipment.

Dropshipping. Jim Straw comes to the rescue again with his Mailorder report. Basic idea is... you sell a product, the customer sends you the money, you take your cut and send the rest to the supplier who ships to the customer. And while a viable idea, does require an ability to generate a list of some description.

A guy I know has a Friend who makes money doing this with Replacement Parts for Radio Controlled Cars. And he does it via a website. People visit his website catalog and buy a part. He takes his cut and sends the Order Request to his supplier in Hong Kong who ships it to the customer for him.

Ebay Chattling. Another guy I've spoken with runs ads in his state for car parts to a certain car. He arranges to meet those who respond to his WANTED ads and goes on Weekend Buying Trips. He then sells these car parts on Ebay and makes some Nice money.

There are Other Methods I have in mind but want to hear your thoughts and see what you have to say on it.

What Methods or Examples do you know of that allow a person to MAL regardless of where they live (assuming they do live in a Modern country and not in a tent in the middle of the Malaysian jungle)?

Michael Ross

Michael, Thanks for making me think. I do pretty good with a home based portrait studio but I’m still limited by population density. The only way for me to expand is to travel more myself. I could do more shoots by taking my portable studio to my customers home or place of business or hire and train others to duplicate my system in their own area or charge a percentage of the profits they make using my setup. Also can sell written instructions and video trainings online. But what I do can only be duplicated by someone who is passionate about photography.

To answer your question…..
“What Methods or Examples do you know of that allow a person to MAL regardless of where they live (assuming they do live in a Modern country and not in a tent in the middle of the Malaysian jungle)?”

How about an example of someone using access to free computer time at the local library because they don't own a desktop or laptop they can take to the beach with them?

How about an example of a 15 year old Mexican girl who uses pay per click ads to promote affiliate programs? Seems to me anyone could do that but most won’t so many people are forever restricting themselves to a regular 9 to 5 job in the offline world.

Chris Carpenter who wrote “Google Cash” back in 2003 has just released
a new, fascinating free report called “Google Cash Strikes Back”.

It appears to be a brilliant viral campaign for him because anyone who downloads the free report is paid 50/Cents for every person they tell who also downloads it.

Plus you are entered into a free contest to win a trip to Mexico to spend a week with Chris showing you the ropes. His free report also contains a link to a free video where he gives you a $20,000+ per month campaign to copy.

Chris says profitable PPC ad campaigns are being targeted by those quick to use new intelligence tools like his cash detective. He compares someone who has created a profitable Google Adwords PPC to a miner using a pick and shovel to dig his gold. Then one day someone shows up with a steam shovel, bulldozer and a dump truck and puts you out of business by stealing your claim. But he compares his new tools to a space ship. He has an image of a UFO shooting a beam down to earth on the cover of his free report and gives an example how a 15 year old Mexican girl he shared this with is making money.

I was wondering if there are any independent reviews from people using his tools? I suspect that question will likely go unanswered by those who are profiting from these tools. Chris will profit from both using and selling the tools. Kinda like selling picks and shovels to the gold prospects back in the 1800’s but today it’s selling high tech UFO like tools to people who will purchase them but never get around to actually doing any digging with them. The little guy working his fanny off will never know what hit him when others use technology to gain a completive advantage.

Anyway someone with a laptop can promote affiliate programs using PPC or ads on websites like your ads on SOWPUB for the “The Success Report” from just about anywhere including the beach.

Chris Carpenter's 60 second video spiel is done from a windy Mexican beach. If you haven’t read his report or seen the video you can do a google for “Google Cash Detective or click on visit this link http://snipurl.com/GoolgeCashDectective if you don’t mind him paying me 50/cents for sharing it.


Cheers,

Steve Shulenski
www.MaverickPhotographer.com

Michael,

Online sales work for a lot a people, and not just the usual eBay selling.

I remember reading about a online entrepreneur who set up a website selling only black socks. He went on the proposition that some people will buy online to avoid going to a store to buy something as everyday as socks.

Only after he had established his "black socks only" sales, did he expand and offer online sales of "white socks only".

There are at least 2 major groups buying online - individuals and business/industry buyers. Instead of purchases of one of these and a half dozen of those ($10 to $1000 purchases), the business buyer offers the possibility of online customers ordering 100 to 10,000 items as a time or literally ($100 to $100K) per purchase.

I don't know about you, but given a choice, I'd rather make a small percentage of the business orders, rather than a mountain of the small orders.

KAESER & BLAIR, INC.

I've been selling for them for over 13 years, but I have sufficient market to do well in my local and regional area. But others with limited markets, as well as some who have no desire to do face-to-face selling are capturing part of the online market for promotional advertising products. Since the US market for promotional items is $18 Billion annually, a person getting a reason niche of the online orders can easily MAL selling to the online buyers.

Kaeser & Blair has several dealers who are selling 90 to 100% of their volume via the internet, including a handful who are in the "Top 30" of K & Bs approximate 4000 dealers. These are individuals achieving sales volumes of $300K and up from the comfort of their home, and definitely reaching the MAL zone.

Because I established my 23-year old business offline well before the internet was a possibility, I focus on serving those offline customers I have established, but have added online sales to boost my total volume and income.

One of the great thing about selling promotional products online, is that a buyer can expect to build a residual income from those customers who will order both the same item as well as different products on a regular basis. I have some online clients who have been ordering from me for 4 to 5 years, including one university in California and a health insurance support internet support company in Virginia who started ordering 6 years ago when they were based in Florida.

My online order average is considerably larger than my local order ($1000 compared to $400), but the bigger difference has been in the bigger orders. I've had single orders from online buyers between $1000 to $38,000 several times in the past 6 years, including one that was for Panasonic.

Although the K & B dealership is restricted to US residents, there's no reason why an online entrepreneur in Canada, Europe, or even Down Under couldn't find a promotional products distributor in their country who would be interested in having an online salesforce bringing them orders off the internet.

As long as the US resident has regular access to the internet (not 2 hours per day 6 days a week at the library), I don't see why anyone is the states couldn't expect to MAL online if they can drive targeted buyers to their website.

And, since the K & B dealership is free, with no products or inventory or buy and resell, this opportunity meets the second criteria for your online opportunity.

Dennis Bevers
BASSCO, Inc.
www.CuttingEdgeAdvertising.com

[Ankesh]

Stock Exchange. No crowds needed for trading stocks.

Similar example is Forex.

Writing.
Painting.
Drawing cartoons.

* Anything that can be "syndicated" allows you to work and make a living from anywhere in the world

* Or if the work can't be syndicated, then if you find a broker who can sell the things for you - you can work and make a living from anywhere

(For eg: there are quite a few people in India who live in villages that have a population of 200-300 people and create traditional Indian jewelry or clothes or pots etc. They don't sell their wares in their own villages. But rather, sell it to just 1 or 2 brokers who come to them once or twice every month. And these brokers than sell the stuff in big cities.)

Ankesh,

Thanks for ideas.

Stockmarket. While some big money Can be made, I feel the Learning Curve is too steep for most. Heck, even Trading Graduates come unstuck.

I understand the Quicket way to make money is by Selling Puts. But you might have to buy so you'd better have the funds and want the stock anyway. In which case, it's not a viable long term thing. But worthy of Investigating certainly.

Writing, painting and drawing... syndication Sounds wonderful. But the reality is, there are a LOT of people desiring syndication and not many spots available. Those who buy syndicated stuff are limited in number. More a Luck Of The Draw thing as I see it.

That's not to say a person should not write or draw or paint. But those things should be done because the person likes doing them first. So if money doesn't follow they will continue and eventually maybe they'll Hit It, but they won't be too upset if they don't.

Brokered Work. A far Wider Ranging element than you might care to think about. Most furniture stores are really just Brokers - they sell stuff other people make.

Interestingly, Broking can work two ways. You either create stuff the broker sells - or - you act as broker for other people's creations.

I've seen some Wood Carving work from Africa. And those guys were Good. They were trying to rip people off and using the carving to make a Larger sum of money. But if they'd been Above Board then a legit broker in the US, UK or Aust Could make some interesting money by having those guys Carve stuff for pennies on the dollar.

A $2,000 woodcarved bust of someone could be had for what, $100, making the broker/dealer a cool $1,900 just for sending some photos to the carver. And if they cannot find a carver online then a Local would come into the picture.

Think of yourself, for example. You would have better success finding someone to carve a bust then I would. I'd send you the picture - via email - which you would show to the person who did the carving. You pay them, add your profit and charge me, then I add your charge, plus shipping, plus my profit, and charge my customer - who could easily have Comissioned the work via the web. Enabling me to Broker the deal from any Tin Shack with internet connection.

Ankesh, if YOU were offered the Chance to be an On The Ground Broker/Go-Between/Source-Finder would you do it?

Similar idea to what I just mentioned... heard of a guy who makes Duplicates of Your Home and puts them into a Snow Bubble. Find someone to do that and then Broker those - people come to you to have one made, you pass on the photos and the maker makes it and sends it to you and you send it to your customer. Customised and Personalized Creations.

Michael Ross

[Ankesh]

Thanks Michael for starting this thread. Some great money making ideas over here.

I think stock market is like predicting weather. There are just too many variables for anyone to be extremely accurate all the time. But people can predict the broad strokes.

(I'll make a post about Warren Buffet's 4-step strategy in a bit.)

Re: Syndication. Its tough. But if you are half decent, you can break in. Especially if you are a writer.

But even if you can't break in into syndication - there is licensing. This is tough too. But the pay off can be worth it. For eg: what Jimmy Krug did - wrote a report for a bank. And the bank distributed it to 1000s of people - paying a good fee to Jimmy.

Licensing is easier for cartoons etc too.

Re: Brokering.

I have done it before. I would do it again too if I knew:

* There were guaranteed buyers in the market.
* If the profit would be worthwhile.

If I did focus on brokering again - I would most likely go for big product items only and find the buyer first.

Aloha Michael,

Fantastic question -- and one that is familiar to me.

I took a left turn with my business in December. I decided to start weening myself from incestuous "Make Money On The Internet" stuff I was doing. I see big changes coming down the pipe.

I decided to pack up my belongings and moved from big city Atlanta, Georgia to the small coastal town of Blaine, Washington. In fact, Tonasket is just on the other side of the cascades from me...

What do I do? I decided to take my love of martial arts and combine it with my love of marketing.

I became a marketing consultant for martial arts school owners -- and do everything via phone!

My blueprint and business model?

Jeff Paul's course "How To Make A Surgeon's Income As A Part-Time Home-Based Business Consultant" that I bought on EBay for $27.

My first client fell in love with what I was teaching him -- and I was hooked! With what I have learned about Information marketing and copywriting over the years, I know I will be able to squeeze millions out of this niche.

Aloha,

Jason Cain

Michael,

In Today's high tech world...

I Don't think we're really restricted or Population Dependent...

The Offline and Online business possibilities are Unlimited by imagination and hard work...

Whether you Need Local demographics, population or niche Search demographics...

Google, MSN, Yahoo... and all the Free research & Help to get the required info...

http://www.refdesk.com/factpop.html
http://www.freedemographics.com/
http://www.keywordworkshop.com/pages/Free-Tools-Listing
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Focusing & Starting just One business idea is the Real Problem for Many...

The Perfect Solution to your post...

Here we go Again...

Light Bulb Moments With Perry Marshall
Sharon Odom Fling
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthre...SPECTING+ideas...

Phil

Phil,

Thanks for a Bright thought.

Company in Australia imports and sells lightbulbs. Sales were OK but they wanted better. So they...

1: Approached businesses with the offer to Change Lightbulbs As Needed - on call and via a regular schedule - via a Lightbulb Maintanance Contract

2: Charge the business on a Til Forbid basis which gets up to X visits a month for free (like how elevator companies work with their Maintanance Contract).

3: Having worked this system well, they then offer Franchises - other people pay them for the right to sell their lightbulbs to others under the terms of the first two steps. Thus the company Increases sales of their imported lightbulbs.

Note: I just ReVisited their website and they have changed the above, just a bit. Buit essentially it is the same. You can see their site here: http://www.mrglobologist.com

Essence of what they do...

1: Import Consumable Product
2: Offer Replacement Schedule on Til Forbid basis (or on call)
3: Offer others the Chance to jump in at step 2, to sell the product they import.

Similar to MLM, but a tad different.

It's close to being able to MAL from anywhere, for them. But it didn't start that way. Though their Model is a good one to know.

Michael Ross

Michael,

Thanks for sharing that Lightbulb concept...

Just Think on How many other Things in everyday Life need to be Changed, Serviced and Delivered...

Specialized Niche services is an Untapped market with incredible Potential with Ongoing Revenues in Booming niche marketplaces...

A couple interesting business models...
http://www.gomassage.net/
http://www.springwise.com/fashion_beauty/nail_taxi_1/
http://nailtaxi.com/

But you Broker the concept and Build yourself a Referral Network of Lifetime commissions...

On the mention of Light Bulbs...

A couple other interesting Light Bulb stories come to mind...

With some Good business lessons that can be Applied to Trend Watching...

Bright Idea: Product Launch Success Story
http://smallbusiness.aol.com/start/s...13183109990006

Read all about it - Levenger Co.'s reading accessories - Levenger Catalog

Great 4 page story...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...25/ai_19128570

Phil