Losing my job soon (GM) - I need to earn a basic $5,000 a month

[MikeWalker]

Hello Everyone,

I've been reading the forum for a few weeks now and it is time I started getting involved.

I did build a few simple websites about 10 years ago as a bit of a hobby. I taught myself some basic html and I see that now css is used a lot.

Hopefully with a bit of study I can learn css in a few weeks and be in a position to build some nice websites.

My Quick Story:

I will be losing my job in a couple of months. I was a technical sales manager for a Car Parts manufacturer. Needless to say, this market is really struggling right now. I am also a qualified accountant believe it or not.

Fortunately, I will receive a small payout that should cover my family's expenses for about 6 months.

Hopefully, this should buy me some time to start creating an internet income.

The very MINIMUM income I need to make is $5,000 a month. Hopefully more over time.

I have been looking at what niche I would like to target and I am still a little undecided. Perhaps there is something I can do related to my main corporate skills of technical sales and accounting/finance.

As well as exploring that avenue, I think the other niche I am most interested in is the natural health and wellness market.

I am interested in creating a small range of high quality health supplements and selling health information. I will be bootstrapping this all the way and obviously keeping costs down.

Apart from weight loss products, I am unsure what are the biggest sellers in this field. I will do more research etc.

I was wondering what should I do from here. I am familiar with the google keyword thing and that has given me a number of ideas. I know you basically have to target keywords etc.

However, I don't know how to find what health products are selling well.

I also don't know if it is worth me trying to do something with my skills of sales/accounting.

I would really appreciate any suggestions or ideas as my thinking is very fuzzy on this whole thing right now and I am seeking some clarity of direction.

At the end of the day I will get a part time job if I have to, to help pay the bills, but I am rather disillusioned about working for large corporations, where no matter how well you think you are working, you are still the effect of the larger wheels in motion.

Having my own business, ideally one that generates most of its income online would be my ideal scenario.

Please advise if you can...

Thanks,
Mike Walker

[MeTellYou]

Hey Mike,
Congratulations on loosing your job... no I really mean it. Now you're forced to start doing some online stuff and that will pay if you're persistent. I am not into any of the markets you mentioned, but I wanted to say hi and recommend (as you said you would anyway) to do your research. Very important.

Again. Welcome!

Sebastia

[Mark .W. James]

just sent you a PM Mike

[tdj]

Hi Mike,

I think Jimmy Brown has a affiliate program going on right now that would get you going. He will even help you. Jimmy is well respected in IM. He knows his stuff. You can ask around for references if you wish. :: Affiliatenaire™ - How To Make Money Selling Other People's Stuff In 3 Hours Or Less I think is the site. If not just google Jimmy Brown and you should be able to find it.

Todd

[phish3rz]

Hi Mike,
Health and Wellness niches are very profitable if you get into the right niche and target the right keywords. I'd recommend maybe subscribing to a few affiliate programs which sell digital products, so you can attach a product to your niche site and monetize from it. Research into a few keywords and analyze the top 5 websites,, see WHY they are ranking. Maybe they are authority sites..or maybe there is NO competition. PM me if you need any help or advice, i'm generating about $1500 / Month off health websites, and thats 4 websites of mine.

[SeanSupplee]

Originally Posted by MeTellYou

Hey Mike,
Congratulations on loosing your job... no I really mean it. Now you're forced to start doing some online stuff and that will pay if you're persistent. I am not into any of the markets you mentioned, but I wanted to say hi and recommend (as you said you would anyway) to do your research. Very important.

Again. Welcome!

Sebastia

you will be VERY surprised what one will do when his or her back is to the wall. It sparks a new determination and a reason for getting up and accomplishing some new goals along with a fresh start. Did for me

[dean_holland]

Good luck with this Mike !!

You seem to have the right attitude to actually make this happen, something most do not or dont for very long !

You say you have 6 months, well get started now my friend... It will not happen right away so start now and I expect you should be seeing some decent income over the coming months

The health market is a BIG niche to go into full of buyers, if you have good nowledge in this market then use it to your advantage !

Maybe for long term income give some form of membership site a thought

Just sit with a pad and pen mate and brainstorm to hell.... Write everything you have an interest in, any area you have good knowledge of... etc

Then take those things you have written and do some online research, search for forums in the areas you have written on paper, get involved in them, find out what problems people face in that niche... Then solve them for money !

You might find it useful to grab the newly released book of Ewen Chia.... I read it on holiday recently myself and for someone starting out I recommend it as an Excellent resource to get you on the right path online.. Pick it up at amazon

Hope that helps a little, best of luck.. Be nice to hear from you furtherdown the line as to what you have chosen

Dean

[simpleonline1234]

On an honest note.....$5000k/ month is going to be quite the challenge to obtain. It isn't impossible however but will require an exhausting amount of work to reach your goal.

The thing with Internet Marketing it takes time to know whether or not a site will workout or fail.

There alot of tracking, promoting, etc to take place during a time period.

If it were me in your shoes then I would dive in head first and try to get 10 or 20 mini sites that can produce about $20/day in income via Adsense or Affiliates or both. That number will give you about $6000 per month. If each site has 10 pages and each page produced $2.00 a day then your set.

That's the lot of it in a nutshell.....hang out here alot and search any questions that might arise and you should be able to see how deep the rabbit hole goes and hopefully pull out with more than $5000k/ month.

If it's any constellation i know that 10 sites producing $100/day isn't impossible to achieve.
That's the lot of it in a nutshell.....hang out here alot and search any questions that might arise and you should be able to see how deep the rabbit hole goes and hopefully pull out with more than $5000k/ month.

If it's any constallation i know that 10 sites producing $100/day isn't impossible to achieve.

I would just slap up a bunch of sites and see which ones stick and which ones don't. If you get get a good ratio of pulling one out of 10 sites then your doing okay....

[mormel]

Hi Mike,

It's all about content. When you want to earn your money in the health sector, find out what problems people have. For most of these problem you can find answers online. If you don't find them readily: look in forums, ask experts or just call a specialist in a hospital and ask for an interview.

Then set up a few sites on which you deal with the problems you have isolated. Give a lot of info, take care that all your pages are filled with ORIGINAL content (never mind if you use PLR or other materials, but first make them your own by rewriting them!). Drip feed your sites with new information, at least once a week: the search engines love that.

When your sites rise in the SE's, you'll earn some money with your Adsense ads and some affiliate programs. But the real money is in selling your own products. It doesn't matter when you're not up to writing an ebook: others can do that for you, it's not too expensive. Just provide them with a lot of info and be clear in what you want.

And of course: build lists. Each and every one of your site should have its own list, that you build up via an autoresponder. That way you can send newsletters and mails to these people, giving them info, making them trust you and sell them some stuff in the long run.

That's the way to make a business that will last and that will give you and your family a solid income. You can only do that by delivering valuable content first, only after that you'll be able to make some real money.

Yours, warriorly, Ed

[Michael Oksa]

Is that $5000/month minimum to maintain your current lifestyle? Or to survive?

My guess is that if you really look at your budget you can reduce that figure substantially, for now - then work your way up to the $5000/month.

$5000/month.

Time for a gut check. What will you do if your income is suddenly reduced to $1500/ or $2000/month? If you had no choice, would you be able to survive (again, temporarily) on less?

With that being said, it is possible to reach that level, and you're in the best place to learn how.

Wishing you every success,
Michael

p.s. Send me a PM if you would like a free copy (no strings attached) of my guide about how to go from full-time employee to never having a boss again.

[Djbrat]

Originally Posted by MikeWalker

Hello Everyone,

I've been reading the forum for a few weeks now and it is time I started getting involved.

I did build a few simple websites about 10 years ago as a bit of a hobby. I taught myself some basic html and I see that now css is used a lot.

Hopefully with a bit of study I can learn css in a few weeks and be in a position to build some nice websites.

My Quick Story:

I will be losing my job in a couple of months. I was a technical sales manager for a Car Parts manufacturer. Needless to say, this market is really struggling right now. I am also a qualified accountant believe it or not.

Fortunately, I will receive a small payout that should cover my family's expenses for about 6 months.

Hopefully, this should buy me some time to start creating an internet income.

The very MINIMUM income I need to make is $5,000 a month. Hopefully more over time.

I have been looking at what niche I would like to target and I am still a little undecided. Perhaps there is something I can do related to my main corporate skills of technical sales and accounting/finance.

As well as exploring that avenue, I think the other niche I am most interested in is the natural health and wellness market.

I am interested in creating a small range of high quality health supplements and selling health information. I will be bootstrapping this all the way and obviously keeping costs down.

Apart from weight loss products, I am unsure what are the biggest sellers in this field. I will do more research etc.

I was wondering what should I do from here. I am familiar with the google keyword thing and that has given me a number of ideas. I know you basically have to target keywords etc.

However, I don't know how to find what health products are selling well.

I also don't know if it is worth me trying to do something with my skills of sales/accounting.

I would really appreciate any suggestions or ideas as my thinking is very fuzzy on this whole thing right now and I am seeking some clarity of direction.

At the end of the day I will get a part time job if I have to, to help pay the bills, but I am rather disillusioned about working for large corporations, where no matter how well you think you are working, you are still the effect of the larger wheels in motion.

Having my own business, ideally one that generates most of its income online would be my ideal scenario.

Please advise if you can...

Thanks,
Mike Walker

I wish I could give you some advise but i'm new to this too. Good luck with your search. Let me know if you find something good and I will so the same.

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by MikeWalker

I did build a few simple websites about 10 years ago as a bit of a hobby. I taught myself some basic html and I see that now css is used a lot.

Hopefully with a bit of study I can learn css in a few weeks and be in a position to build some nice websites.

Keep in mind that it is not necessary to know CSS in order to build a nice website. It is a great help, however, and can be a time-saver too.

But, my point is not to let worrying about learning CSS stand in your way of building a website with great content. You can use your existing HTML skills to build new websites, and get content on them, while you're learning CSS. You can always go back and CSS-ize your sites later.

Learning income generation strategies as others have discussed should be a higher priority. You could set aside some time each day to learn CSS, but the bulk of your time should be spent on building your site(s), developing content and learning strategies.

[derekwong28]

I had some success (### per month) in promoting native remedies and goldshield direct in Shareasale. All I did was simply to bid on their products' keywords in Adwords and directed it straight to the merchant's website. It was straigt forward "Google Cash" method and I didn't need a website at all.

Unfortunately, native remedies does not allow this anymore and for some reason, the conversion rate for Goldshield fell off. But the fact that I could do it shows the potential of this niche.

In my opinion, the quickest way to $5,000 a month would be to sell your own products, either shipping them yourself or by dropshipping. However, this would require some investment and risk.

Good luck

Derek

[Scott Ames]

I am interested in creating a small range of high quality health supplements and selling health information. I will be bootstrapping this all the way and obviously keeping costs down.

One way to do this is to start selling other people's health supplements and information thus building your own list. Perhaps you can JV with someone here. Health is a huge market so if you can specialize you'll be better off. IE: Men's Multi Vitamin for Left Handed Body Builders instead of Multi-Vitamins for everyone including your pets.

[MichaelHiles]

Man that sucks for you.

You've got some serious changes coming. IM should never be viewed as a get rich quick or even make a lot of money quick activity. It does take some time to get it rolling. I don't want to discourage you, but simply clarify reality for you so that you don't "overshoot the runway", so to speak.

Make sure you've got a safety net and start lowering your overhead.

[Adaptive]

Hi Mike, welcome to the forum.

By the way, I find it easy to believe you're an accountant because in your first post, you provide a comprehensive summary of the relevant factors in profit/loss and research-needed categories.

Having my own business, ideally one that generates most of its income online would be my ideal scenario.

I think you're on the right track there. If you have 100 clients or 100 customers, what happens when one goes out of business or gives up on you? It means you only have to replace 1% of your income.

Once you set it up, your own business is actually far more secure than having one boss provide one paycheck that's 100% of your income. And if you have multiple businesses in different fields - as you could well do with your variety of interests - all the better.

You can diversify better than most managers, by simply having an umbrella business and a sunscreen business, so you're making money no matter what the weather.

Since you're already familiar with management, sales and accounting, you are well equipped to be able to understand how to be your own back office for your own business. This puts you far ahead of many people starting their own business.

Bob Bly is an example of someone who went from a technical marketing background, as a chemical engineer who happened to try his hand at sales writing for his employer, into a very prolific and successful freelance copywriter, and then a success at Internet marketing.

So if you have fear that your background is too broad or too specialized, replace that with the realization that you are blessed with many skills and techniques that will bring a depth of professionalism to whatever new career you choose.

about 6 months...

That's plenty of time for you to get started. May I recommend that you use the first month to build a plan? Take a week or two to do whatever is delightfully refreshing to you that doesn't involve much money. Meanwhile, list your strengths, talents, and favorite interests, and prioritize them. If you're out of touch with your own strengths, from having had to adapt to what a job required, consider going through "dream life checklist" books - "What color is your parachute" is a classic and I can recommend several more by private message if you like.

Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Prioritize everything down to your top 10 lists, then your top 5 lists. There are some interests and traits of yours that have been well rewarded in your career path so far. They might or might not be the ones you find most fulfilling. Maybe you really love analyzing financial spreadsheets, or maybe skiing any place they have hot apple cider at the lodge is really something you love more.

This is all very important now that you get to choose your own path. For example, there might not be a job that involves drinking cider at a ski lodge, but there could well be a niche for you to build web sites for cafes at ski resorts and get both cider and travel covered by your clients. I just made up this example because I don't know yet what really delights you.

Your greatest success will come at the intersection of what you love, what you're great at, and what really meets needs or fulfills wants for other people. Take some time for your side of the equation before looking too much at what markets pay well.

You'll then have about 5 months to build up a new income of $5,000 per month before. This means that on average, you'll need to add a $1,000 monthly income every month; to increase your monthly income by $250 per week. Each business day, you should learn, grow and expand in a way that will increase your monthly income by about $50. You can do this! Not every approach or technique will pay off, but on average, if you have more successes than learning experiences (new language here!), to the tune of another $50 per month on average per day's adventures, you're well on your way.

You can also evaluate all advice and offers in terms of, "Am I likely to boost my monthly income $50 for each day I invest in studying this, or is there a better use of my time right now?"

At the end of the day I will get a part time job if I have to

It's interesting that you described life in black/white, either/or trade-off of only two options: struggle unhappily working for The Man (at least he pays fairly well), or dive into online marketing based on what happens to sell well these days. I think that's a false dilemma. For example, a third option is to do some kind of project-based offline consulting to help small businesses.

I look forward to what you'll discover in your new journey!

Regards,
Allen

[timreed]

There will be something round the corner mate, just dont dive into the first thing you see.

[alpalino]

i wish you started online business before losing your job, then you could have told your boss stick the job where the sun doesn't shine

[affenpinscher]

Here's my suggestion:

Build a website with good content. Use Private Label Rights or gov't publications or create your own content. Have at least five pages and don't forget to put a page with your
Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Example: Free Privacy Policy Generator - Template

Topic of your website should not be something that lends its to controversy (health
and wellness) or junky built-for-Adsense website. Pick a decent topic; e. g. gardening
and have some good articles.

Then you can apply to Google for Adsense, eBay for its affiliate program and once
you have those, apply to some CPA programs which is where you can make real money.

The reason for the first website is to get approved. EBay is very fussy about the sites it
approves as are CPA networks. If you have a good one with good content, you can get approved and then have your affiliate codes forever.

Google requires Privacy Policy and its a legal requirement in many states such as California.
If you don't like the example I gave you, look at sites like Microsoft, Yahoo, or Amazon and tweak what they have to suit you.

Adsense is unlikely to make you $5000 a month but it's easy income once you get set up. EBay can be good source of income if you can get approved. No reason not to have as many income streams as possible.

Good luck.

[lstoops]

One way to get a good income going fast is to provide a service. What can you do that others will pay for? Writing, editing, web development, seo, coaching, transcription, manage marketing campaigns etc, etc. There is potential all around you!

[talfighel]

Originally Posted by MeTellYou

Hey Mike,
Congratulations on loosing your job... no I really mean it. Now you're forced to start doing some online stuff and that will pay if you're persistent. I am not into any of the markets you mentioned, but I wanted to say hi and recommend (as you said you would anyway) to do your research. Very important.

Again. Welcome!

Sebastia

Sebastia,

That is pretty funny to congratulate someone for losing their job.

The best advice I can give Mike is to find a solid opportunity online like MLM and do what ever it takes to succeed. Find a good mentor and follow them.

Tal

[eMarketing_Tips]

I would recommend using Twitter to look for great ways to learn eMarketing or Internet Marketing Techniques rapidly. You will get a wealth of information daily that will amaze you about how quick you can start making money!

[Joe Stewart]

Hi Mike,

First of all, DON'T PANIC!!!

I was where you are about a year and a half ago. My offline business was slowly dying and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was making some money online, but nowhere near enough to support my family.

This is what I did.

First of all, I told my wife that I was going to start devoting 75% of my time on my online business and cut my offline biz down to two hours per day.

Second, I told her that we had to cut expenses ASAP! This meant going out to eat less, turning off the flipping lights that aren't being used (sorry, rant necessary :-) ), stop driving unless necessary, cut rarely used subscriptions, start eating less expensive foods, etc.

Third, I followed Travis Sago's Bum Marketing Methods and Tim Gorman's article marketing methods and worked my rear end off until I had a couple grand coming in regularly. This means burning the midnight oil for a few months, but once you get the ball rolling it's practically unstoppable. Once you've started earning a certain amount then you can begin outsourcing.

Google "Travis Sago" and then "Tim Gorman", learn from them, roll up your sleeves and get to work!

Good luck!

Joe

[giselle.benites]

Mike,

I am very sorry you are going to be losing your job. I cannot imagine how stressed you must be feeling right now, but I am so glad you are considering the Network Marketing arena. Network Marketing is actually booming due to the so called "recession". I am not involved in the health & wellness industry. But I am involved with a system that helps you brand yourself in whichever business you choose. It's a plug-in, fully customizable Attraction Marketing system.

Once you find a business you are looking to grow, contact me if you need any help

Giselle

[lburrell]

Dude not sure what you mean by "qualified" accountant, but you can easily get a job doing that. I'm studying for the "real" qualification (the CPA) and companies are begging me to come work for them. I'm not going to do it b/c I'm going full-time with my start-up (SCARY!!!) but if I fall on my face I can easily get a job doing accounting or PR work.

5G's a month with limited knowledge will take some time to get but atleast you are in the right place!!

[Gunter Eibl]

Hi Mike

I'm sorry to hear about losing your job. Since you have a couple of months time there is a chance that you can build up some income online but $5k is not that easy if you are new to it.

If you have some money to invest it is easier of course. What I would do is build good content sites like nuts. Product review sites (affiliate sites) and also some Adsense sites. Since there is not too much time, you should outsource as much as possible, means get a lot of content online based on the keywords you researched. Also link building, article submission etc. must be done. This is all tons of work and probably time is too short to do it all yourself because you will also need time to get ranked. It doesn't work from one day to the other.

The health niche is extremely competitive as well. You must go for very long tail keywords, means less competitive keywords. Go for "buying" keywords, keywords that look like someone is going to buy something soon.

Gunter

[Steadyon]

Hello Mike and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to hear the news about your job, but who knows it may turn out for the best.

It's sounds like you really want you own business and are tired working for the big boys.

I would recommend that you carry on doing some research like you seem to be.

I think with the right approach and finding a worthwhile niche to focus on you sound like you will get the ball rolling quite quickly.

It is good that you have set yourself a target. Depending on who you listen to, $5,000 is either a lot or not very much at all.

I think starting from zero, it can seem a lot to get to $5,000 from your online efforts each month.

As well as looking into the health niche, perhaps there is a way you can use some of your business skills to develop some kind of small business growth info product.

However, this may be more realistic to create and sell with confidence when you have got your health business making money.

One of the niches I am in is health, so drop me a PM if you ever want a second opinion on something related to it.

It is a very competitive market, but it is a large market. Also, there are a lot of garbage products out there and by concentrating on high quality you will set yourself apart from a lot of the competition. The skill though is getting your message across to as many prospects as possible and getting them to realise that you aren't a fly-by-night rip off company.

Very best wishes on your endeavours, keep positive and learn to hone in on the right opportunities you now have.

Steadyon

[ShaunAllen]

Another great niche is...

The get your get your ex-(wife, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend,) back niche.

Google the magic of making up. This is a very desperate market with a lot
less competition than weight loss or wellness products.

Good luck!

[Warriorcoach1]

Hi Mike,

The first thing is this - it's all about marketing. Marketing is everything. If you spend your time and energy to become a master marketer, I believe you will easily make that $5K per month.

This means avoid the temptation to get sucked into spending lots of time and energy on product creation, web site creation, etc. Focus on marketing instead.

Great content creators often starve. Master marketers never do.

The best way to learn marketing is to use one of the plug and play marketing systems out there to do this.

Network marketing and MLM offer lots of leverage for building a great income. However, they only work well when joined to the kind of plug and play marketing systems mentioned above.

Joint ventures are also possible. I got started by building a big teleseminar series with big name guests and made mid 5 figures for about 6 months work. That also built a list of 5000 people. And I was totally new at the time, like you.

Finally, always bounce your ideas off several people who know more than you do. Don't trust your own judgment too quickly.

I wish you every success! Feel free to PM me if you want more details on anything I've said.

[hamerz]

Hey Mike,

How about starting with something that you know really well or are an expert in. Think of all the things that you had exposure in Mfg. List them out. Perform some keyword research around and see of there is an underserver market.

I can imagine that technical sales things, ISO 9000 type stuff, OEM qualification are valued knowledge. There may be some big ticket items that you can be an affiliate for and you can write about what you know.

My father is a GM for a contract Mfg., running several plants. Managing, Sales, Lean, ISO, FDA, OEM, all could lead somewhere. I'd have a field day with him if he came to me and said that he would no longer be working for a company and would be looking to build something for himself.

Within a decent career, there probably already exists the niche and knowledge to build a really good start ad foundation to your online business.

Good Luck!

[aekaplan]

Mike, ironically you might be one of the few people who could put a blog up about how they make money with the internet after losing their job (see my landing page below for an idea of how you could make money... feel free to rip away, that's what everyone else does with offers like those). I'd recommend signing up for some affiliate networks (My top 2 favorites are Neverblue and Hydra) and build sites promoting various offers.

There are a lot of health- and weight-loss related products you can market, as well as making money online and making money from home products you can market. With the money you make from CPA, you would have a far greater chance of actually creating your own product.

I think that having your own product is a great idea long-term, but you're going to need cash flow in the meantime! CPA offers, with traffic driven to them via PPC, article marketing, social bookmarking, etc., is a great way to go until then. Best of luck and I feel your pain, I'm an automotive industry analyst and I know all too well about the troubles of the industry.

I would also agree with the above post by hamerz. You may want to start a blog documenting your efforts at earning money after losing your job - you could generate quite a following if you follow the blog strategies on Warrior Forum. You may also have the expertise to start an automotive-industry-related blog, potentially from a worker's perspective. Good luck mate!

[peato]

I think echo the poster above who pointed you to lots of sites making $20/day.

[tomp]

Mike,

Sorry to hear this. "When one door closes another one opens"

PM me - I may have something that can get you at least 80% of the way there. we share common interests.

Tom

[thomashoi]

Finding a niche is not enough, you need to find a hungry audience who has their credit cards on hand ready to make the purchase.

you can go to amazon, ebay, buy.com and find out the top sellers in different categories.

Do not spend any money on buying websites or keyword tools as you can get all these for FREE.

[aekaplan]

Thomas, not sure what you mean regarding buying websites. It's worth it to pay a few bucks to work with a reliable domain operator.

[Michael Oksa]

Originally Posted by cosmokid

Um, actually $5000 doesn't go very far these days - and I'm sure the original poster is clear-headed enough to know how much money he realistically needs on a monthly basis to replace his old income.

Remember, not only will you be paying federal and state taxes on this money, but if you're in the US you will also be subject to self-employment tax which can be a real b****h to deal with. Depending on your deductions that can hit very hard. Plus you're moving into a reality where you'll need to pay quarterly estimated taxes on your income.

So $5000 might not be enough. There's no harm in focusing on earning more. It's important to be realistic in this game and know what your goals are.

If you pay for your own health insurance that amount if 100% deductible which is helpful. I recommend you start keeping careful track of every penny you're spending on your IM startup - save receipts for every domain purchase, every how to book or ebook you buy, all software purchases and other tools for your business, office supplies like paper, printer ink, etc. These will all become deductions you can claim to lower your tax liability.

Jennifer

The point is that he may not be able to replace his old income right away. Finding the true minimum to survive is an important exercise.

Maybe he won't be able to have health insurance for a while, maybe he'll have to get a different car, or move - or whatever.

My main point is that he should prepare for the worst and get an idea of the lowest amount he can live on, not the lowest amount he needs to maintain his current lifestyle.

In reality, nobody NEEDS $5000/month to live. Food, shelter, utilities, and clothing are the only real necessities.

Even trimming the budget a little bit can help, at first. And that's the other part of what I said. Lowering expenses is likely to be a temporary step.

$5000/month is entirely possible online. Start now.

I'm not trying to argue or anything, just trying to help Mike attack his problem from both sides (income and expenses). In effect, that approach will double his efforts and get him on track much faster.

All the best,
Michael

[Floyd Fisher]

Mike:

At the risk of sounding like a naysayer, I'm going to throw some cold water in your direction.

Starting a business in your scenario is a recipe for disaster. You need to be building a business with what is called 'risk capital'. In plain english, it's money you don't mind losing.

Starting a business can be dirt cheap, but if you need every dime coming in to pay basic living expenses, you don't have any risk capital to speak of.

You need to sit down with the wife like yesterday, and ask yourself how much money can you afford to throw away without endangering the family? That is the risk capital you have to start a business.

If you and the wife agree you don't have any, then don't do it, and start working on getting a new job instead. Once you get there, then figure out how to raise the necessary risk capital to start this.

[jayden.fellze]

First thing first, I sympathize with you, as what you have made mention, you will be losing your job in the next couple of months. I believe, if you start working on an online business, a range of 6 - 8 months can't give you an immediate $5,000 a month. That will totally be a total struggle. But on the positive side, your sales experience will be able to help you with the marketing strategy, and I believe that would become your biggest asset.

[KateD]

Mike,

Sorry to hear about your situation. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. You mentioned "creating a small range of high quality health supplements". If you need a stable $5000 a month in six months, creating and selling a physical products (one that people consume, no less) would not be the way to go.

There are SO MANY ways to make money digitally. Just pick a method. And focus on it until you make money.

2. If you do go that route (creating/selling physical products), I think someone mentioned starting a mailing list. You should start a list regardless, but it would make more sense to start building your list quickly by giving away a special report or guide (in order to get people to subscribe). Once you do have a health supplements ready for sale, you will have a list of propects to immediately target.

3. I wouldn't bother with learning css. There are tools available (ie. Wordpress, XsitePro, etc) that allow marketers to create professional looking sites and blogs easily and quickly.

Focus instead on choosing a profitable niche and marketing the heck out of it.

4. There are LOADS of profit potential in the Health niche. Diseases. Treatments. Fitness. Weight Loss. And on and on. Probably hundreds of potential niches.

5. I do have a bias, but I would recommend putting extra time in creating a keyword list in the niche you'd like to target BEFORE you wrote your first article or made your first webpage.

To be able to compete with more established blogs and websites, you are going to want to target keyword phrases that have some decent search volume, but have low enough competition for you to be able to tap into (hopefully, anyway).

And I'll even offer to help you out with this.

- Take some time to brainstorm possible niches that you would like to target.
- Give me the three that most interest you.
- I'll do some preliminary keyword research and tell you which I think would provide the best list of keyword phrases.
- And then I'll do a full keyword research project on that niche.

Send me a PM when you are ready.

Six months is plenty of time. Getting to $5000 a month may not happen. But you should be able to establish some growing streams of internet income in that timespan.

Much Success,

KateD

[kdsm100]

Mike, very sorry to hear you're losing your job. I can speak from experience...almost 22 years ago my husband came home one day at 10 a.m. saying he no longer had a job. Just like that. We had just bought a house at the VERY top end of the range we could afford and had a 9 month old baby and my elderly mother had just moved in with us. I had stopped working to be a stay-at-home mom.

We started a business in the same field my husband had been in all his life (competing with his ex-employer) and we now have around 20 employees, locations on both coasts and have been semi-retired for about 12 years.

Reading through this thread I have to say I agree that if you need a minimum of $5K a month you need to create a business doing what you already know and can leverage. Trying to go into something totally new is dicey. But you can take what you know and possibly do it in an entirely different way. But one of the reasons we were able to build our business quickly and support ourselves was because of the connections and people my husband knew in his niche.

You can always move into an area that you are more interested in or passionate about down the road, but I'd say you should leverage your existing knowledge and skills for the fastest return. My advice might be different if you were single or didn't have kids (you mentioned "family").

Best of luck to you!

[KateD]

Originally Posted by Sylvan Noel

To get into health products you will need considerable investment.

Are you talking about developing and selling a physical product?

Because you don't need a huge investment to start promoting health related affiliate programs. You can even start with zero investment (although it will take more work on your part).

Digital is the way to go, my friend.

KateD

[MikeWalker]

WOW everybody!!!

Mike here again.

I have just checked this thread just before I have to go out and I am quite shocked.

I really did not expect to get so many amazing comments, ideas and help.

Actually, I am genuinely shocked by the heartfelt response and kind words.

I really am at a loss for words and I don't quite know what to say, which is unusual for me. I really didn't expect such a great response and so much help on my questions.

Thank you all very much.

At work it has been quite rough for a lot of people recently, especially those losing jobs like me, and one can start to feel a little cynical at times and blame others for one's situation.

At the end of the day you have to take responsibility for one's own situation and climb up out of the mess. Having said that, it is still nice to get a helping hand and I feel all of you, who have written a reply in this thread, have lent down and offered me your hand.

This I really appreciate, and it has really brought a lump to my throat to be honest. So I am going to end off now and come back tomorrow and reread all of your comments in more detail and reply more fully once my head has cleared a bit.

I thank you all sincerely,
Mike

[sbucciarel]

While you're going to get a lot of advice to do affiliate marketing, many people don't make money from it until they've been in it for awhile. It's a lot of trial and error. There are a lot of other things you can do to supplement while you're getting the hang of it. If you have any special talents you can freelance on freelance sites. If you can build nice looking sites, you can flip them. If you can write, you can sell articles. These are just a few ideas ... by all means, pursue affiliate marketing but don't wait until the last dollar is in the bank before trying something else if it doesn't work for you right away.

[Taylor French]

Definitely don't listen to the naysayers who say $5,000 a month in 6 months is difficult or impossible. Because they feel they couldn't do it, they say no one can do it. That's BS!

You can do what you believe you can do.

[Michael Oksa]

Originally Posted by Taylor French

Definitely don't listen to the naysayers who say $5,000 a month in 6 months is difficult or impossible. Because they feel they couldn't do it, they say no one can do it. That's BS!

You can do what you believe you can do.

For the record, I'm not saying it can't be done - it can. My point is that if you can reduce expenses AND earn that kind of money you will get better results quicker.

~Michael

[Taylor French]

Originally Posted by Michael Oksa

For the record, I'm not saying it can't be done - it can. My point is that if you can reduce expenses AND earn that kind of money you will get better results quicker.

~Michael

I totally agree. Reducing expenses is always a good thing. Most people live far beyond their means, or at the very least right at the cusp.

[Andres]

Sup Mike,

First off - sorry to hear you are losing your job, I've been down that road and it sucks ass. The best advice is to look for work perhaps in sales (with a base) there are plenty of sales jobs right now in this market.

At the same time start your own web business on the side.

Lets face the facts - you won't make $5k off the bat in your first month as a rookie. BUT you can earn that money with patience and time.

Also you won't find the BIG BUCKS selling $40 ebooks but you will make bigger bucks selling a physical product that actually costs $100 or more and you get a cut.

I would start selling digital and physical products and have more than one website if you choose to market more than one product.

That's my opinion.

Andres

[Popstar]

As has been said, often the fastest way to earn income is by providing a service. Have you ever thought of becoming an accountant for small businesses... doing tax returns, etc.? Even when small businesses lose money, they have to pay accountants to file the forms... if they have employees and physical inventory, you'll be busy year-round, not just around April 15th.

That could get you an income while you start an Internet business. If you hire some college kids to take care of data entry and some of the more routine accounting chores, your time will be freed up to start your Internet business.

Or you could work full- or part-time as an employee for an accounting firm that serves small businesses.

Then you won't be under the gun to make $5000 per month from the Internet so quickly.

I really disagree with the idea of putting up multiple Adsense sites. That can take forever to produce a worthwhile income.

Here's what I suggest instead...

Think about what your skills are. Then consider what related market you'd like to be in. Also think about what area of the market isn't being served... where you can come in and dominate with your specialized skills. The narrower your niche, the more likely you are to succeed because you'll be viewed as the expert.

It's the difference between being a general practitioner in medicine or being a cardiologist. When you have a heart problem, which one do you want to see? The specialist, of course.

In fact, the narrower your niche, the better. So what's better than a cardiologist? Hmmm... how about a heart transplant surgeon? You'll notice that as the niche gets narrower and you become more specialized, you can command more money.

As for what your market needs... rather than guessing, check out forums in your niche and see which questions and problems keep cropping up. That can point to an unserved need.

Also, you may be able to approach some of these forum members to talk to them one-on-one to see what their wants and needs are. Or alternatively, you can try to survey people in your market to see what they want.

You'll have a much greater chance of success if you take some time to find out what your market needs, especially if you can find a place in your niche that isn't being served adequately by your competitors.

Then take what you've learned by talking to your prospects and you can create a product (and marketing materials) that is almost guaranteed to sell... after all, it's what your market has told you they want instead of what you assumed they want.

It's true that you'll want to acquire excellent marketing skills... but if you have something that people really want and you make a compelling offer, they'll buy even if your sales copy isn't the finest.

Here's one more way to increase your income. Pick a niche where you can keep selling to the same customers... in other words, where there's the potential for a "backend" line of products after the first sale.

If you sell one-time products to customers in different niches, you'll always be trolling for new customers. That's time-consuming and costly.

But if you sell an intro product to customers in your niche who are hungry for more advanced information, products, or services, then you'll have a business that is much easier to grow. It's almost always easier and more profitable to sell to existing customers than to new ones.

One more trick to getting those first sales rolling in... when you're researching your market and your competitors and deciding where you'll position yourself to meet an unserved need, look for companies that are selling complementary (not competitive) products or services to the customers you want to serve.

Then try to make a product that will not only serve your customers, but that the companies with complementary products or services may want to sell to their customers as well.

Try to strike a deal to have them sell your product to their customers and give them an attractive percentage. If it makes sense and you intend to have a backend line of products, they could even give your product away free as a bonus to their product. You wouldn't make any money upfront, but you would build your list with customers who are proven to buy (because they bought the other company's product).

There are lots of other ways to get those first sales rolling in... advertising on niche forums, etc.

I don't agree with shooting for pennies just because you're new to the market. I would also caution you to stay away from freebie-seekers. Too many marketers waste their time giving free reports for the email addresses of people who will never buy from them. That's not always the case, but I feel it's usually better to build a smaller list of buyers than a larger list of people who've opted in for a free report only.

If you use the right strategy, there's no reason why you can't make $5000 a month (or more) just as easily as $5 a month... with the same amount of work... or possibly less.

The key is to take the time to know your market and position yourself in it to win.

Good luck,
Debbie

[a1journo]

Originally Posted by Taylor French

I totally agree. Reducing expenses is always a good thing. Most people live far beyond their means, or at the very least right at the cusp.

Second that. Be realistic and you will soon learn what you can expect in what sort of time period.