How To Comply With GDPR On Your Blog

gdpr-compliance-bloggers

What is the GDPR policy and how to comply with GDPR on your blog?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It is legislation to protect the privacy of EU citizens, particularly with regard to the way personal data is collected and stored. In this article I’m going to show you how to comply with GDPR on your WordPress blog.

If you have visitors to your websites or squeeze pages from EU countries then there are things that you need to do to comply with the requirements of GDPR before 25 May 2018.

Now don’t panic!

If you are just collecting email addresses and building a list in an autoresponder then a simple consent statement on your opt-in pages and in the footer of your emails may be all you need.

Some people are recommending using a check box and statement on squeeze pages but this makes the whole process very cumbersome and may not be entirely necessary. I’m not legally entitled to advise you on this but I can refer you to this legal argument that indicates that it isn’t, strictly, required here:

do my signup forms need a consent checkbox - how to comply with GDPR

The other method, and this is implicitly the correct way to obtain someone’s consent, is to use double opt-in. Remember that, if you do this, you can’t withhold whatever it is that the subscriber has signed up for even if they don’t consent.

So you should always take people to your download page whether or not they consent to receive messages from you. Again, it’s a messy way of doing things and I’m personally not doing this but sticking with single opt-in.

For more information on GDPR compliance on squeeze pages, I’ve gone into it in more depth here:

comply with gdpr

Now, if you have a blog and you’re collecting email addresses there, whether it’s on a contact form, using squeeze pages, pop-ups and so forth, or even in comments, then you need to update your privacy policy.

And if you’re using cookies at all, and remember that Facebook Pixels, Google Analytics and other trackers do place cookies, or if you are running affiliate promotions, then you need a cookie statement too.

That’s a little bit more complicated, which is why I’m showing you how to comply with GDPR in this video:

[page_section image=’https://petercomeau.com/wp-content/uploads/IMac-full-720.png’ textstyle=’light’ position=’default’ padding_bottom=’on’ padding_top=’off’ img_static=’off’ fullheight=’on’]

[responsive_video type=’youtube’ hide_related=’1′ hide_logo=’1′ hide_controls=’0′ hide_title=’0′ hide_fullscreen=’0′ autoplay=’1′]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqBGtPIU5RE[/responsive_video]

[blank_space height=”250px”]

[/page_section]

Watch the video to see how you can use a couple of free plugins for WordPress blogs that will give you GDPR compliance for personal, I.e, non-commerce, WordPress blogs.

Hope you find this useful

Read more about GDPR compliance on your squeeze pages here: how-to-comply-with-gdpr-on-your-squeeze-page/

You may also want to upgrade your WordPress blog to https:// – see how to do that here

Step-by-step plan to grow a home business

step-by-step plan to get rich

When I first started looking for a step-by-step plan to grow a home business, I was sadly disappointed that there was no-one who was prepared to tell me ‘do this, do that, get rich’.

I couldn’t understand why not? After all there were plenty of people online who were running successful home businesses, or at least were telling me they were wealthy beyond dreams.

So why not show everybody how?

What I came to realize, after years of following this, that and the other training programs, is that most people who are claiming that they have the ‘secret’ to grow a home business online only give you part of the answer.

The reason why they do this is obvious, in retrospect. By giving you part of the method, these canny marketers can then follow up with more and more ‘partial’ trainings that, hopefully, build up the complete picture.

One big problem then occurs – we call it ‘information overload’.

You end up with a hard drive littered with ‘partial’ training programs, possibly from different people, and your brain goes all fuzzy when it tries to put them all together.

And the result? You end up doing nothing.

Information overload means that, no matter how much ‘training’ you receive, you are incapable of actually making any progress because it just all seems too complicated.

Which is why the only way forward is a step-by-step plan to grow a home business.

Step-by-step means exactly that. You take the first step then, once you’ve crossed the starting line, take the next step, always following a clear path to your goal.

Of course, you have to set your goal in the first place. And, no, it’s not just about ‘making money’. Your initial goal has to be something definable and that you can envisage achieving.

Without a clearly defined goal, you could spend a lifetime planning how to grow a home business, but never, actually, take the steps to get there.

It’s highly important that each section of your step-by-step plan to grow a home business is something you really believe is achievable. It’s no use dreaming of becoming a billionaire if you don’t know how to make your first million. Or, indeed your first 100 grand.

And few of us really believe, in our heart of hearts, that we can make a 100 grand that easily.

So set your initial sights lower. Plan to make $10,000 first of all. Or even set your target as low as $1000 if you’ve never made even a dollar online before.

Then, when you’ve achieved that first target, and proved to yourself (and your friends and relations) that your step-by-step plan to grow a home business really works, you can set the next higher target – scale the system up and follow the path to your dream income.

None of this is difficult, providing you start with a step-by-step plan and a defined and, more importantly, believable goal.

That goal, and that plan, will be different for everybody. Because we’re not all the same. Which is why the marketers peddling their ‘partial’ get-rich-quick schemes cannot possibly give you the solution all-in-one.

And that’s why, if you’ve already tried to earn money online, you’ve failed to make it.

Get yourself a tailored plan

So your step-by-step plan to grow a home business must be tailored to you. It must take into account your current abilities, your short-term (as well as long-term) goal and your mindset.

By ‘mindset’ I’m not talking mamby-pamby nonsense about Law of Attraction or anything like that (there is some validity to the Law of Attraction, but it’s not what you and nearly everybody else thinks it is).

It IS so important that your mind is in the right place, both at the beginning of your training as well as how you develop confidence throughout your training. Without confidence, you won’t feel like going forward and are more likely to give up too easily – which is almost certainly why you have failed before.

It doesn’t take much to instill confidence – just a helping hand. Which is where coaching comes in.

Now, I know you may well be thinking ‘but, Peter, I can’t afford coaching’. But what if I could show you how you can get one-on-one coaching PLUS the training you need for a few tens of dollars a month – would that interest you?

It should do. I’ve a few places opening up for this opportunity right now. So hop on a call with me (it’s free) and let’s discuss your current situation, where you want to be in a year’s time and formulate a step-by-step plan to get you there.

You can schedule a call with me by clicking here. And I look forward to talking with you.

Getting Over SAD

getting over sad

It is mid-January and the days are, finally, getting noticeably longer – which is a relief for those of us suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) or, as I often refer to it, Seasonally Afflicted Depression! Whenever spring approaches I’m so happy to be getting over SAD.

For years I suffered from SAD and didn’t realize it. Thankfully it doesn’t affect me so much these days, but my symptoms started as a growing depression as the year reached towards its close and a definite feeling that my life wasn’t worth living shortly after Christmas.

Are you suffering without knowing it?

I first noticed it as an affectation. As the days get shorter and the nights draw in, when you wake up in the morning and it is still dark, a lot of the joy of life seems to leave you. Yes, this feeling is ameliorated by the weeks leading up to Christmas and the excitement of the season.

But after the Christmas festivities are over and everything still seems black, when you go to work in the dark and return home in the blackness of night, depressive mood swings can catch you out.

It’s been better since I have been spending more time in sub-tropical climes. For example in Shenzhen, China, which I visit often, the day length changes only by an hour or so between summer and winter, regulating the day length, and my mood, to a pattern which helps me cope better when I return to the UK.

The real key to getting over SAD, though, is to formulate a response to your depressive thoughts. This can be action based or an emotional response.

Whenever I’m feeling in the slightest depressed, actually getting off my arse and doing something spurs me into a more positive frame of mind. Actually accomplishing what I set out to do and ticking it off my to-do list helps lift my spirits.

Another way is to actually realize that you are better off than a lot of other people in the world. It might not seem like it, when depression raises its ugly head, but most of us live in a virtual paradise. The very fact that you have a roof over your head, water to drink and food to eat, and have no natural predators stalking you, means you’re better off than the majority of other living things on this planet.

Take a look around you. It might seem that the birds in the sky are soaring through the air in apparent freedom – ‘as free as a bird’. In reality, though, they are forever looking around, fearful of being preyed upon and always searching for that next peck of food.

And don’t forget that their lives are tragically short compared to ours. Even if you look at the lives of other humans on this planet, a huge proportion of them are struggling to find food, water and, often, somewhere to rest at night. Look back in history only one hundred years and you’ll soon see that life was more difficult, and uncertain, for your ancestors.

I find it helps to reflect on the relative peace in our current lifestyle, compared to the struggle of other living beings, and what we have to look forward to.

And if you don’t have anything to look forward to, why not change that outlook? Start making plans to better your situation. Don’t let depression drag you down but keep your head up and fixed on a brighter future. Just as the days will get longer and the sun will come out, so your life can be changed for the better if only you will set yourself achievable goals.

Need help getting over SAD?

Need help doing that? Let’s discuss it over a friendly chat. Schedule a call with me by clicking here and, together, we can put together an action plan for your brighter and better future. I look forward to helping you in getting over SAD – together we can crack it.

How To Get Rich Online

how to get rich online

There has never been an easier time than this to become wealthy and, today, I’m going to show you how to get rich online.

Do you know that the six richest people in the world now own more wealth than the bottom 50% of the world’s population? And here’s another breath-taking statistic – the wealthiest 1% of the population collectively have more money than the other 99%.

Because of the widening gap between rich and poor, the wealthy are able to spend billions on ridiculous extravagances.

For example Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, is spending $42 million on the construction of a clock designed to run for 10,000 years. The Sultan of Brunei owns 500 Rolls Royce limousines. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, owns a collection of fully restored World War II fighter planes.

And, of course, the wealthy know how to become wealthier by making shrewd investments. Paul Allen bought the Seattle Seahawks for $200 million in 1997 – today this NFL team is worth a reputed $994 million.

What about you? If you had wealth beyond measure, with what extravagance would you indulge yourself? I’m sure you could think of something – your own island, like Richard Branson or a luxury super-yacht with gym, two swimming pools, hot tubs, disco club and luxurious apartments like Roman Abramovich.

This is, for most of us, the stuff of dreams. How about turning some of those dreams into reality?

I’m not suggesting that you can become a billionaire overnight but, with a sensible investment in yourself and your future, you can realise enough income to enjoy many of life’s luxuries.

Set your goals just a little lower, say for a new home or that expensive car you’ve always wanted, and all the things that you’ve set your heart on can become a reality.

How to get rich enough to afford the luxury lifestyle or improve the lives of your family and loved ones?

Actually it’s remarkably simple and, each and every day, thousands of people are taking steps to invest in themselves and their future.

I’m talking about starting your own online business. It’s easier than you imagine and costs very little to get started – far less than any bricks and mortar business.

I’ve done it, I have trained others to do it and now you can do it too. All you have to do is schedule a call with me and I will map out an action plan for you. Or, if you want to know more in advance, download my new book ‘It’s Not Rocket Science’

This will also interest you: Read my Step-by-step Plan To Get Rich

[page_section textstyle=’dark’ ]

[thrive_headline_focus title=”What Do You Want To Do Today?” orientation=”center”]

[one_third_first]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

give up the day job

I want to earn more than enough to give up the day job and improve my current lifestyle

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/give-up-the-day-job/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_first]

[one_third]

[thrive_custom_box title=”How To Start A Home Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

Start Home Business

I want to see how an online business works so I can learn how to do it from home

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/kick-start-your-own-online-business/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Start An Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third]

[one_third_last]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Grow My Online Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

grow online business

I want to grow my existing online business so I can scale up and reach my income goals

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/free-strategy-session/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Grow My Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_last]

[/page_section]

[page_section template=”1″ position=”default”][thrive_headline_focus title=”Check Out My Latest Posts” orientation=”center”][thrive_posts_gallery title=”” no_posts=”8″ filter=”recent”][/page_section]

Take Action Now, Don’t Put It Off Till Tomorrow

take action now

Take action now, because you can’t take action yesterday!

What does that mean, really?

So many of us, and we’re only human with all the usual human frailties, promise to take action. And we always promise ourselves that we will do it tomorrow.

Because it is easier to put off to tomorrow what we should do right now.

It’s an easy excuse “I’ll do it tomorrow”. Yet how many times does tomorrow come and you haven’t done what you promised to do?

It’s not just you. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I am as guilty as everyone else of putting things off until tomorrow.

Over the years I’ve watched people who are action takers – people who get things done, successful people that everyone else admires.

I have noticed that these people have two attributes:

  1. They take action now

  2. They plan what they are going to do next

How different is that to the majority of the population who wander, aimlessly, from one thing to another, always putting off the disagreeable things (or what they imagine to be disagreeable) to tomorrow.

And isn’t it funny how anything that appears to be ‘work’ also seems to be something that you don’t want to do, right now? And that it always falls into the category – ‘I’ll do that tomorrow’.

Remember, ‘tomorrow never comes’

It’s always today. So, if you really want to do something, if you actually want to move closer to your personal goals, take action now.

You can’t take action yesterday, so take action NOW!

Become one of the action takers – become one of those people who get things done. It’s simple – all you have to do is take action NOW!

I’ve made it easy for you by showing you the steps to take here:

Set A Daily Routine For Success

How To Convert Your WordPress Blog To HTTPS

convert your wordpress blog to https

I’ve just been converting all my sites to HTTPS, including my WordPress blogs. Convert your WordPress blog to HTTPS isn’t easy, on the face of it. I found a myriad of instructions about convoluted ways to do it, including editing the htaccess file and then converting all your links, including image links, video links, links for attachments, internal links and so on. Urrggh!

If you think I’m going to go through all that for each of my blogs you’ve got another thing coming!

So, I had to find a quicker way, and I did. And I’ll show you how you can do it in a minute…

…but, first, why bother?

What’s so great about https:// and why should you change anything?

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) was set up as the default code for site pages at the beginning of what we now call the Internet. Initially, it allowed for links to other pages and sites within the page text and, over the years, has grown into a style of programming code that makes site pages visually entertaining and informative.

However, there are no security protocols within HTTP. Basically, http:// pages are wide open to all sorts of abuse. And you’ll probably have seen Warnings when you’ve accessed some sites, recently, with Google trying to keep you away from sites that might ‘steal your personal info’.

This is going to become more prevalent, especially for sites which collect information such as email addresses and credit card details (for example if you have a squeeze page on your site or sales page with a buy button).

Even more worrying is that Google has announced that it has started giving ranking advantage to sites which have HTTPS. So, if you’re using your blog for SEO purposes (and who isn’t?), you’ll want to convert your wordpress blog to https://

Using HTTPS (S=Secure), computers agree on a ‘code’ that is scrambled so that no-one else can read that code. This is set up through an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to send the information back and forth.

To do this your domain must have an SSL certificate in place. Thankfully cPanel has started adding basic SSL to domains automatically and most web hosts will already have them in place (if you haven’t been notified of this, contact your web host to see).

Note: if you are running ecommerce on your site, you may need a higher rated SSL certificate. Domain providers like GoDaddy and Namecheap offer these, as do many web hosting services.

How to convert your WordPress blog to HTTPS

Right, now that you understand the benefits of https:// and, hopefully, have an SSL certificate installed on your site, here’s the quick and easy way to convert your WordPress blog to HTTPS:

  1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard
  2. Disable any cache plugins like WP Super Cache
  3. go to Settings/General
  4. Add an s after http to your website URL in the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) boxes
  5. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the Settings page
  6. You will probably be logged out automatically at this stage (if not, log out) – log in again to the new https:// URL
  7. Go to Plugins/Add New
  8. In the Search Plugin box, type ‘velvet’, then hit enter
  9. Velvet Blues Update URLs‘ will show up near the top of the list
  10.  Click on the plugin name
  11.  In the window that pops up, click the Install Now button
  12.  The window will close and show you the Add Plugins page again. Click the Activate button next to ‘Velvet Blues Update URLs’
  13. You’re almost finished! Go to Tools/Update URLs
  14. Under Step 1, put your old http:// URL in the first box and your new https:// URL in the second box
  15. Under Step 2, check all of the checkboxes except the last one (IMPORTANT – do NOT check ‘Update ALL GUIDs’)
  16. Click the Update URLs Now button
  17. A little box will come up telling you how many changes were made
  18. Return to Plugins/Installed Plugins and deactivate ‘Velvet Blues Update URLs’. Once it is deactivated, you can delete it.
  19. This is optional, but I suggest you go the plugin’s page on WordPress.org and either leave them a nice review or donate a dollar or two (or both) since they just saved you from having to search all over your website for links that needed to be updated: 
  20. Visit Site to check everything is ok
  21. Turn your cache plugin back on (if you have one)

Yes, I know it is 21 steps but, really, it will take you a couple of minutes to do this. Just make sure you have that SSL certificate installed first.

Then you can rest easy that Google won’t penalize your blog for lack of security and you’ll be giving peace of mind to your blog visitors too!
[page_section textstyle=’dark’ ]

[thrive_headline_focus title=”What Do You Want To Do Today?” orientation=”center”]

[one_third_first]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

give up the day job

I want to earn more than enough to give up the day job and improve my current lifestyle

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/give-up-the-day-job/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_first]

[one_third]

[thrive_custom_box title=”How To Start A Home Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

Start Home Business

I want to see how an online business works so I can learn how to do it from home

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/kick-start-your-own-online-business/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Start An Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third]

[one_third_last]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Grow My Online Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

grow online business

I want to grow my existing online business so I can scale up and reach my income goals

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/free-strategy-session/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Grow My Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_last]

[/page_section]

[page_section template=”1″ position=”default”][thrive_headline_focus title=”Check Out My Latest Posts” orientation=”center”][thrive_posts_gallery title=”” no_posts=”8″ filter=”recent”][/page_section]

Getting out of the Rat Race!

get out of the rat race

I talk to a lot of people about getting out of the rat race – about the turmoil in their lives – what they are going through, how the dream they had when they were young never materialised…

…we all have unfinished dreams – goals that we set up and never reached…

…I did too.

A short time ago I discovered where I was going wrong and what to do about it. Previously I had wandered aimlessly, following paths not knowing where they would lead.

Some of those paths worked out for the better. A lot of them didn’t.

The trouble was that I didn’t have a plan – I hadn’t set a direction for the way my life was going.

We all tend to fall into things, often without realising the hole we’re falling into. One of those is a job or, as some people call it, a J.O.B. = Just Over Broke.

I vowed, when I was young, that I would not do any job that I didn’t enjoy. I didn’t want to wake up on a Monday morning feeling depressed and hating going into work. In my youth I switched jobs, and locales, frequently, driving my parents crazy in the process!

[content_container max_width=’600′ align=’center’]
ratrace-happiness
[/content_container]

Settle down or have fun?

All my parents wanted was for me to have steady employment, a career with prospects, and ‘settle down’.

Instead I drove my own road, having a lot of fun, and an equal amount of torment, along the way.

It’s easy to do that when you are young and carefree. But having people that depend on you – a wife, kids, relations – all forces you into circumstances that you probably end up not enjoying as much as you thought.

Approaching retirement it became clear to me that I was no longer in a position to lead the life I had always wanted.

I’d dreamed of a retirement full of travel and excitement – seeing remote places of the world, discovering different cultures and experiences. Instead it looked like I was going to have to go on working till I dropped!

That’s when I realised I needed to make a plan – a life plan or, more accurately in my case, a rest-of-life plan.

And for that I needed an element of freedom – financial freedom. And I needed to get out of the rat race.

Maybe you are in a similar situation? Perhaps you still need to get out of the rat race – unable to escape from the drudgery of your job or regular commute?

Or are you, like I was, facing a retirement where you’ll be virtually destitute, unable to enjoy your leisure time with your loved ones?

Everyone has their own problems. Everyone has their own goals and dreams.

My job is to help you achieve your goals and realise your dreams.

I’m inviting you to download my latest book Retire Free‘ which outlines the simple plan that I used to get out of the rat race and achieve financial freedom. At the end of it you’ll see a way that you and I can formulate an action plan which is best suited to you, personally. Because everyone is different, so no one plan fits all.

Start by downloading my free book ‘Retire Free’ here, today. I really hope it helps and look forward to talking with you.

retire free
[page_section textstyle=’dark’ ]

[thrive_headline_focus title=”What Do You Want To Do Today?” orientation=”center”]

[one_third_first]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

give up the day job

I want to earn more than enough to give up the day job and improve my current lifestyle

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/give-up-the-day-job/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_first]

[one_third]

[thrive_custom_box title=”How To Start A Home Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

Start Home Business

I want to see how an online business works so I can learn how to do it from home

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/kick-start-your-own-online-business/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Start An Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third]

[one_third_last]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Grow My Online Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

grow online business

I want to grow my existing online business so I can scale up and reach my income goals

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/free-strategy-session/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Grow My Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_last]

[/page_section]

[page_section template=”1″ position=”default”][thrive_headline_focus title=”Check Out My Latest Posts” orientation=”center”][thrive_posts_gallery title=”” no_posts=”8″ filter=”recent”][/page_section]

Why choose affiliate marketing?

why choose affiliate marketing

Choosing affiliate marketing is opting for one of the fastest, easiest and least expensive ways to being able to earn a substantial income online.

Why choose affiliate marketing to kick-start your online business?

Most people who start looking for ways to earn money online begin by searching for terms like ‘best way to make money online’ or ‘how to start an online business’. They may even ask ‘how to make money fast?’ or ‘make money online for free’.

The reasons people search for terms like this is either because they are desperate to earn extra money or they are fed up with their day job. And turning to the internet to ask these questions is practically their only option. Because, unlike other professions, very few folk know of anyone who has actually succeeded running an online business.

The fact remains that there are a few people who are obviously making money – and a lot of it – using online methods. And it is also a fact that there are a lot of ‘marketers’ who put on a brave face but are actually struggling to make even a few dollars online.

You may well have heard that online sales of physical products, digital products, courses and education, increase by a staggering average of 23% every year. This growth does not look like slowing down anytime soon, and the financial transactions that these sales represent include a parallel increase in sales for advertising channels and commission earning affiliates too.

But how can you get a slice of this action for yourself? And which piece of the pie should you be looking at when you are just beginning?

After all, the usual Google search terms I’ve mentioned above give a long list of possible money making methods, including online surveys, building websites, writing content, and even something called ‘no-risk matched betting’! 

Why choose affiliate marketing?

But are any of these what you had in mind to kick-start your online business?

I don’t expect so. Most people seriously looking to earn online want to build a business that will provide a passive income stream, not just trade hundreds of wasted hours of their spare time for limited dollars.

Having said all of this, an interesting trend emerges when you look at the early online efforts of many of today’s top earners. A huge proportion of them (including myself) got their start by learning affiliate marketing. And what is affiliate marketing? It is simply marketing someone else’s product online in order to earn a generous commission on every sale.

And why choose affiliate marketing? For various good reasons, including the fact that you don’t need to have your own product, you don’t need your own website, you can get started very quickly, and you can also begin either for free, or for a very low investment of under about $20.

However, there is another reason to choose affiliate marketing as the place to begin your online business – one not usually recognized or valued. This reason is that, even though affiliate marketing itself is a simple system to learn, the activities you engage in while you build each affiliate marketing campaign actually expand your skill set as you progress.

This means that – unlike writing articles, filling out surveys, or even building websites – by learning affiliate marketing you will be exposed more and more to the key ingredients of long-term online success; skills like social media marketing, advertising strategies and relationship building. In other words, choosing affiliate marketing is a sound way to launch a potentially great online career.

Start learning to be a successful affiliate by scheduling a free strategy session with me today. I’ll show you the quickest way to get started and what it takes to build a 6 figure income in your first few months…

 Click here to schedule a Strategy Session with me. It’s free!

[page_section textstyle=’dark’ ]

[thrive_headline_focus title=”What Do You Want To Do Today?” orientation=”center”]

[one_third_first]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

give up the day job

I want to earn more than enough to give up the day job and improve my current lifestyle

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/give-up-the-day-job/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Earn Enough To Give Up The Day Job[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_first]

[one_third]

[thrive_custom_box title=”How To Start A Home Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

Start Home Business

I want to see how an online business works so I can learn how to do it from home

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/kick-start-your-own-online-business/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Start An Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third]

[one_third_last]

[thrive_custom_box title=”Grow My Online Business” style=”dark” type=”color” color=”#ffffff” border=””]

grow online business

I want to grow my existing online business so I can scale up and reach my income goals

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://petercomeau.com/free-strategy-session/’ target=’_self’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Grow My Online Business[/thrive_link]

[/thrive_custom_box]

[/one_third_last]

[/page_section]

[page_section template=”1″ position=”default”][thrive_headline_focus title=”Check Out My Latest Posts” orientation=”center”][thrive_posts_gallery title=”” no_posts=”8″ filter=”recent”][/page_section]

What is the easiest way to start an online business?

What is the easiet way to start an online business

Have you ever asked yourself ‘What is the easiest way to start an online business?’

If you’re considering earning money online you may well be stumped by a very real initial hurdle: where to start?

Whether you currently have a ‘day job’ or are looking to earn some money in your spare time, or simply want to improve your standard of living, you’ve probably heard of people who make a full-time living simply by running an internet business.

You may even have been so excited by this idea that you’ve started investigating these claims. If so you’ve almost certainly come to the conclusion that nothing in your life up until now had prepared you for the unique skill of learning online. What’s even worse is that you can’t even seem to find out where to even begin to make a start.

So what is the easiest way to start an online business? (And it is important here to stress that it is a consistent income-earning business we want to build, and not just how to make an occasional $20 for one-off online tasks, such as selling on eBay.)

Let’s start by considering ‘what does a profitable business consist of?’

The answer to this, whether it is for an online or offline business, is that we need something to sell and someone to sell it to.

That’s it, in a nutshell. That’s all there is to it!

If that sounds too simplistic to you then that is simply because you don’t know, yet, what that ‘something’ is that you should be selling and who that ‘someone’ is that you should be selling to.

‘Yes, but surely,’ I hear you object, ‘you also need to advertise, or how will your customers know to buy from you? And how do you know what they really want?’

Of course these are very real considerations. But we are looking at the easiest way to start an online business, and in this easiest of ways we are going to avoid much of the complications that a business normally involves. Let me explain.

Let’s use a simple example from an offline scenario…

Imagine you live in a warm climate, and your friend’s father has an ice cream delivery round. He has recently bought a bigger truck and is looking to add more regular customers to his round. He mentions to you that he will pay $5 for every new customer you can sign up for his business. He even has professionally produced advertising flyers designed to attract new customers, and he can let you have as many as you want.

For a few minutes you think about the work it would take to spend your weekends walking around countless neighbourhoods putting these flyers into letterboxes. Then suddenly you remember another friend of yours who has a large community newspaper round, and you offer to pay him 2c per flyer to put these into letterboxes along with the papers he is delivering anyway. He agrees, and it turns out to be a win-win-win situation.

What we have just described is an analogy for how the online affiliate marketing model works.

As an ‘affiliate marketer’, you are simply the middle man who is connecting potential buyers to a seller. You do not need to create your own product to sell because you are selling a product for someone else. You also do not need to know lots of customers yourself, because you can use the services, for a small fee, of someone who already has an existing relationship with a large number of potential customers.

Frankly speaking, that is why starting out as an affiliate marketer is the easiest way to start an online business.

  • You don’t need ‘something’ to sell (the product creator provides that)
  • You don’t need ‘someone’ to sell it to (other people already have a list of suitable customers)

All you have to do is connect the dots. And to help you do that I’m happy to prepare an action plan with you…

 Click here to schedule a Strategy Session with me. It’s free!

Is Affiliate Marketing Everything It Is Cracked Up To Be?

affiliate marketing cracked

A lot of people ask me whether affiliate marketing is everything it is cracked up to be?

What they are really wondering is this…

Is Affiliate Marketing a scam or a legitimate business opportunity?

So, what’s the answer?

It’s a two-faced answer to a two-faced question. It can be a scam. Or it can be a legitimate business opportunity.

What do I mean by this?

There are plenty of business opportunities being offered every day, most of which purport to show you how to make a small fortune (or even a big one) using affiliate marketing.

If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is, it is where you promote another vendor’s product or training and get paid a commission every time someone you’ve sent to the sales page actually buys.

Frankly, it is the fastest way of starting a lucrative online business. Because, as an affiliate, you don’t have to create your own products, your own sales pages or deal with product fulfilment and customer complaints etc.

And that’s where the problem lies.

Because it so easy to begin as an affiliate, affiliate marketing generates lots of vendors who peddle products that appeal to the ‘get-rich-quick’ crowd.

And there are plenty of ‘get-rich-quick’ mentality affiliates who try to sell every product under the sun, whether it has any value or not.

It is these vendors, and their affiliates, who give affiliate marketing and its training products a bad name. And provoke many people to call anything to do with affiliate marketing a scam.

However…

Not everything about affiliate marketing is bad or scammy. There are many ethical and long-lasting business opportunities open to you as a budding affiliate.

You just need to know how to find them.

First of all, just jumping into affiliate marketing without any training is not going to get you anywhere.

Imagine if you were starting your own retail business – and trying to do it all on your own, without any help. Do you think you would succeed?

Of course not. The chances of succeeding in any business without either having a partner or a mentor, as well as hands-on training, are as close to zero as makes no odds.

Yet that is exactly what most new affiliates try to do. It’s not surprising that 97% of them never make a dime online!

I’ll let you into a secret. I spent the best part of ten years trying to crack affiliate marketing by doing it on my own. And had very limited to practically no success.

It wasn’t until I realised that I couldn’t possibly do it all myself, without someone showing me whether I was doing things right or wrong, that I began to make some headway.

I got myself a mentor, plus the focused training I needed, and that’s when my online business really began to take off.

How to start your own online business?

I don’t suggest that you go out there and start searching for coaching and training. I’ve found, to my cost, that a lot of coaching and training programs just end up confusing you.

Which is why I’m offering my help.

No, I’m not going to directly coach you myself. But I can help point you towards programs that I’ve used myself so that I know that they will help you become successful.

To find out what those are just fill out this short survey and let’s have a chat about the opportunities open to you. It won’t cost you anything and you’ll come away from our call with an action plan you can use to get started immediately.

Click here to schedule a Strategy Session with me. It’s free!