When it comes to creating the “Laptop Lifestyle” there are 5 major income sources that allowed me to break the chains of the 9 to 5
@thejefftrimble #laptoplifestyles ♬ original sound – Jeff “Honest Marketer” Trimble
1) Creating A Digital Marketing Agency
Throughout the years, agency and freelancer work has grown. As we pull through the COVID world, more and more people are working remotely. This enables business owners to truly understand the true power of the internet.
If 2020 taught us anything, it was the power of zoom calls and just how easy they truly are. This has opened the doors for more remote and outsourced work. When business owners begin to see how effective people can truly be when working from a remote location they begin to allow it. Just a few short years ago, it was like pulling teeth to convince business owners to hire an agency that was across the globe. “I want somebody local to me”. Most no longer care where you are, which is an incredible thing! Why does it matter where you are working from? As long as you have an internet connection you can do agency work!
Client Acquisition through covid has changed. In the “Before Times,” many businesses just relied on foot traffic into their locations. What happens when that foot traffic stays inside? How do you acquire customers then? You have to market online. The world has woken up to the need to have its online presence up to par. There is more demand than ever before.
But Jeff how do I actually start an agency?
Step 1) Pick a SINGLE skill to acquire like graphics design for dentists. Everybody needs new signs inside their locations.
Step 2) Give your services away FREE OF CHARGE. This will allow you to build relationships with dentists and generate a portfolio to show other prospects in the future.
Step 3) Build a relationship with these dentists and probe for other problems they are struggling with. I.E My front-end manager is not converting enough sales calls. Then build other services around the problems dentists have with the goal of charging a monthly recurring retainer for services rendered.
Pro Tip: If a dentist is struggling with a front-end conversion rate. Set up a call recording software for the client and spot-check their phone calls for them. Sending back the data on missed opportunities AND how to fix the problems. (We get paid to SOLVE problems not present the owner with more)
2) Affiliate Marketing
If there was ever a buzzword list for “How to make money online” this one makes the top every time. The problem is everybody makes affiliate marketing harder than it has to be so, let’s make it simple for you.
Affiliate marketing in its simplest form is just selling somebody’s product and taking a commission for the exchange. It’s almost exactly the same as every sales gig on the planet with one minor twist. If you are really really good at marketing then you can sell these products faster and build a crazy big commission without even talking to people. That is for another blog post though. Today we are going to stick with the basics.
You have customers coming to you every day, they are looking for services that you do not provide. So why not find a provider of these services and then take a cut of the profits? That is exactly what I do…
At my Client Acquisition Agency, we develop and create beautiful websites. Every website needs a hosting provider. We partner with a provider that offers quality commissions and we sell their services. They have to buy hosting anyway so why not take a piece of the pie by recommending our preferred partner? (Every hosting we sell we get an additional $200 right in our pockets)
Now take a look at the people around you. What are they buying? How do you get a piece of the pie?
3) Subcontractor Internet Marketing Style
One of my mentors gave me this tip of advice that changed my life forever “Do what you do best and pay others to do the rest”. In translation, if you do not have any internet marketing skills partner with somebody better than you and pay them to do the work. It’s almost like affiliate marketing but with services.
Now there are two ways to subcontract a deal. The first is referral-based exactly like affiliate marketing. You refer somebody to some business and you take a commission of the profits. It’s completely hands-off. You don’t do any of the customer services, you don’t set any of the pricing. You just bring the customers to the table and the partner does the rest.
The second way is called “White Labeling” and this is by far my preferred method. It works like this, you find somebody that has incredible skills and work out a partnership and a flat rate they will charge you to provide this service. Example: Flyer design for dentists. Then you go out and sell this service for more than the graphics designer is charging you. The key here is you get to set the pricing, the customer is your customer and you have to handle all the customer service and communications between the designer and the customer.
In fact, when I white label a project. My customers never even communicate with the developer directly. This is usually a win-win for both of us. Most designers and developers are NOT “people persons” they tend to be super introverted and do not enjoy communicating with clients. They just want to focus on what they enjoy the most and that is their designing skills. The individuals that work with me love this process quite a bit, we bring them easy money and closed deals. They just have to produce art for us.
4) Coaching
This income stream took me a few years to get used to. People paying to hear me talk. Now though, this service is usually the down sale to my agency. If you do not want to hire us on a monthly retainer to do “the thing” for you. Then we will charge you a flat rate to teach your team to do the thing.
There are so many avenues into the coaching space and one micro paragraph here will not do it justice. If you are looking to become an online coach I 100% recommend checking out “The one funnel away challenge” it’s put on by a company called click funnels and they specialize in teaching you how to create websites called funnels that sell digital courses on autopilot. I can’t recommend “The one funnel away challenge” enough
5) Content Creation
This one is the hardest to monetize but the coolest if you actually get it off the ground. At the time of me writing this, I am sitting in Playa Del Carmen Mexico after finishing up a week-long “Digitial Nomad” conference. I have met hundreds of online business owners and a handful of content creators.
When I think of content creation, the first thing that comes to mind is YouTube creation. Fun fact, I didn’t meet a single YouTuber at this convention. All the content creators were bloggers, or Tiktokers driving traffic to an email list. Most were talking out the weird things they were mega passionate about. Some about skin issues they had and how they overcame them. Others doing travel blogs documenting their glob trotting. The coolest one was a translation blog. Where somebody was teaching Spanish lessons on their website making a killing. Oh and the podcasters… Soooo many podcasters.
It’s really not that hard. It just takes quality content… And that’s where most people fail. Not putting enough effort into what they are creating.
Why wouldn’t you want to put a lot of effort into your content? Some of these people have MILLIONS of visitors to their sites a month. If you knew you had a shot to have a million people read your blog wouldn’t you want it to be top-notch? #JustATought
