Ways To Make Money

Potential LIP Businesses: Virtual Assistants

Continuing with the theme of Location Independent businesses this week, previous readers have asked what kind of businesses enable you to lead a LIP lifestyle.
I’ll let the cat out of the bag here (unless you’ve bought and read the book, X Marks The Spot) and let you in on a little secret….the next book I’m [...]

Continuing with the theme of Location Independent businesses this week, previous readers have asked what kind of businesses enable you to lead a LIP lifestyle.

I’ll let the cat out of the bag here (unless you’ve bought and read the book, X Marks The Spot) and let you in on a little secret….the next book I’m currently writing is going to address that exact question. Not only will it profile examples of several LIPs running different types of location independent businesses, it will give you the nuts and bolts of how to do it too.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting the odd article about specific businesses that could enable your LIP life.

The first of these is about becoming a Virtual Assistant (VA). If you’re considering starting your own VA business to enable your LIP life, given the experiences I’ve had in researching, searching for and hiring one, here are some of the pointers I’d recommend considering… Read the rest of this entry

Where We Get Our Income From

I’ve had several queries & questions recently about the kind of businesses we run as location independent professionals & how we generate our income. The answers are already on the blog, with more details in the book but I thought I’d summarise them here again.
Our income comes from:

Jonathan’s graphic design clients - a couple of [...]

I’ve had several queries & questions recently about the kind of businesses we run as location independent professionals & how we generate our income. The answers are already on the blog, with more details in the book but I thought I’d summarise them here again.

Our income comes from:

• Jonathan’s graphic design clients - a couple of corporate clients in London and a variety of smaller businesses, many generated by my business.

• Jonathan’s illustration clients - a new venture for him (his dream job) and he’s now working on 3 key illustration projects producing a childrens’ book, a graphic novel & a Superman comic.

• My business coaching clients - I have a number of regular coaching clients from my niche target market (health & wellness coaches like personal trainers & CHEK practitioners). Some of these are also on a legacy coaching program which is based on a basic membership site and provides a passive stream of income.

• Technology clients - I offer a range of different techy services for blogs, websites & general technical help to my target market & other solopreneurs who find technology a challenge.

• My new & forthcoming books - this is also part of my strategy to create a greater number of passive streams of income.

• My blogging efforts - whilst I currently own a tiny amount of money from any of my own blogs (so small it’s really not even worth mentioning), I do earn a very small income from guest blogging on some other well known blogs such as Brave New Traveler.

In response to one recent commenter who asked whether I earn any money from providing the information on this blog or any of the other LIP-related things I do, the answer at the moment is “no”.

Although I have some pretty grand plans for this project of mine which only started because I thought someone might be interested in what we were doing…little did I know that it would turn into a book (possibly even a series), a full blown blog and some of the other things which I have in the works!

More Ideas for Making LIP Money Online

The internet, and more specifically, making money on the internet is one of the key enablers for LIP Living. The following are more suggestions to generate additional income online that I’ve either done or will be doing:
1) Blogging
There are a number of services which allow you to earn an income from blogging which include: Weblogs [...]

The internet, and more specifically, making money on the internet is one of the key enablers for LIP Living. The following are more suggestions to generate additional income online that I’ve either done or will be doing:

1) Blogging

There are a number of services which allow you to earn an income from blogging which include: Weblogs Inc; PayPerPost; BlogToProfit

2) Affiliate Programs

If you have a blog or a website,  this is a good way of earning some income from recommending & promoting products & services you like. Check out some of the ones I like down the right side of the blog - these are products/services I’ve used or still use, not just things I fancy promoting. Some of the most well-known companies who run affiliate programs for well-known brands are: Commission Junction; AffiliateWindow; ShareASale; Clickbank; Amazon Affiliates.

3) Other Income Generators

The following are additional ways to get paid for fiddling about online: Google User Research; IntelliShop;
Working Solutions; Tutor.com;
 

5 Ways To Make Money As A LIP

Aside from the typical freelance or online ways to make money, these are some potential businesses that could help enable a LIP lifestyle…
1) Virtual Assistant to LIPs - a LIP has unique requirements when it comes to looking for help. Whilst my limited & novice relationship so far with my VA is proving fruitful & [...]

Aside from the typical freelance or online ways to make money, these are some potential businesses that could help enable a LIP lifestyle…

1) Virtual Assistant to LIPs - a LIP has unique requirements when it comes to looking for help. Whilst my limited & novice relationship so far with my VA is proving fruitful & productive, I can already see a ‘niche’ market evolving here to help service other LIPs. Talk to me (via this blog or join me on Facebook) if you want to know what this is…

2) Online Coach - there are any number of untapped niche coaching businesses which I can think of. If you already run a coaching business but it’s not doing well enough yet to let you live your LIP life, then consider tapping in to some of the niches out there to grow or add additional streams to your business.

3) Blog & write online for pay - there are many sites like payperpost or smorty which pay you to blog & promote certain services. Try blog networks like GigaOM which could help you get a paid blogging post.

4) Build a membership or subscription site - whilst this may take a while to grow big enough to pay you a decent income, it is effectively a passive stream of income which is what a LIP should always be looking for.

5) How To products - like the online coach business, think about what knowledge you have or things you’ve achieved that others would pay to learn and then get creative with the different delivery formats you could use to share this knowledge (ebooks, audio books, videos, group classes etc.).

And remember, if you’re smart about where you choose for your LIP lifestyle, your financial requirements could drop drastically and enable you to live an even better lifestyle than you currently live despite earning less.