 Creating a passive income in retirementPublished Date: 2009-07-01 07:01:07 WorkOnInternet.com
As Baby Boomers we can use our years of experience and diverse skills to be productive and open to a new direction in life. We can define a new life stage by creating a life that suits our chosen lifestyle, not a living a lifestyle dictated by our job! I’m not advocating returning to a job you hated for years. If you decide that additional income is something that you would like in your retirement years, then you need to consider ways that you can produce income doing work that you love in a style that suits yourself and your lifestyle. The world’s biggest marketplace Today over 1.5 billion people, that is 25% of the world’s population, are connected to the internet. In 2008 over 300 billion searches were performed and over $200 billion of goods and services were sold through the internet. It is in effect the world’s biggest marketplace, one which never closes shop because at all times somewhere in the world people are searching the internet. Wouldn’t you love to be able to tap into just a tiny proportion of that $200 billion! Why consider an internet based business? You can work wherever you want, whenever you want, with no staff or premises to rent. You can develop a business that is almost completely automatable, if that is what you want, and you can have many business ideas operating at once. All you need to do is to be prepared to learn, to open your mind to the possibilities and find ways to use a lifetime of experience and skills in a profitable way. I love the fact that you can set up an internet business for next to no money, with almost no overheads. Many a profitable internet business has begun on a lounge room table or in the back of a garage. Perhaps of greatest interest to those of us who are ready to move on from our “real” job, the internet allows you to use your experience and your skills, in areas that interest you, in the manner and time frame that suits your lifestyle choices. Such freedom! Scams and frauds When I started investigating the possibilities of making income using the internet I was astounded by the number of impressive people involved in this sphere of commerce. Probably like you, I was a little dubious of the people “behind the scenes” on the internet but very quickly I realised that this was just the new marketplace, complete with the same collection of good, bad and indifferent people and products as any other marketplace. I found there were some scams and schemes that were best avoided, but also discovered and met great business people who have cleverly used their skills to make a lot of money using the internet as their primary marketplace. I was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that I needed to learn: strategies, systems, processes, the language of the internet, but became fascinated enough to learn all that I could. Just like any form of business, internet-based businesses require deep understanding of what you are doing, but unlike traditional businesses your market is unlimited. How do people actually make money on the internet? The main business models that seem to bring great success on the internet whilst being compatible with retirement lifestyle choices are: Ebooks about everything! Whatever your experience or your interests, there are other people in the world who are seeking what you have to share. The trick is to tailor your experience or interests to tap into a specific niche market, what the industry calls an “inch wide mile deep” niche. Membership sites If your expertise is best shared as small regular packets of information, a membership site may be your best model to use. A good membership site delivers outstanding information in eclasses, each based around one aspect of the overall topic. The benefit to the client is that they can incorporate the expertise you are sharing in small regular sessions, internalising the information and insights as the eclasses continue. Affiliates The internet is a vast information network and the best way to share good information is through referrals. Affiliate programs work in this way. One website refers their clients to another website where they believe the products or services may be of benefit to the client. Some internet businesses use affiliate programs as an added extra within their business, while others base their entire business on affiliate relationships and make amazing money doing so. eBay No, eBay is not just the contemporary version of a garage sale, useful for offloading the household junk. Large and very profitable businesses operate using Ebay as their “shopfront”. There are no shop leases and rentals, no set hours and no need to be involved in packing and posting the products. eBay is the Number 1 retail site in the world and 1.3 Million people now make their full time or part time living on eBay. It has over 233 Million registered users spending up to $141 Million a day. eBay sellers turn over nearly $100,000 every minute. Adsense Some successful businesses are based on what is effectively the creation of billboard websites, which direct you to products and services. The purpose of these websites is not to inform or entertain you, although there will be information there. Their real purpose is to link you to the products and services which relate to keywords you used to search the internet. As an experienced Career Counsellor and Retirement Lifestyle Coach I have found that my clients benefit enormously from being helped to plan their retirement lifestyle thoroughly. Part of this planning is recognizing their own criteria for creating additional income streams. If you start with the business idea your lifestyle has to fit around it. In contrast, during your working years your lifestyle has had to fit around your job. But if you plan your lifestyle first you can then ensure that you make income-producing decisions which will fit in with and enhance your planned lifestyle. http://www.DesignYourRetirementLifestyle.com leads you gently through this process, offering professional support and the benefit of others’ experiences along the way.
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