The internet has been one of the biggest gifts to the way we work, connect and socialise. When I was in Dominica people couldn’t understand how I can make money using the internet and how I could live off that income while I was in Dominica. The simple truth is all I need is a laptop/computer and an internet connection. During our recent move from London to Luton I was without the internet for 12 days and I ran my business using my mobile phone!!!! It was a real nightmare trying to do anything using a phone but I made it work.
So what is it I do? Well, when people need or are looking for a service or product a lot of them now rely on the internet to find it. They use their computer or mobile phone and search for anything from flower shops, restaurants to hypnotherapists and personal trainers. I help these experts create a blog and use that to develop a profile online so that when people are searching they find that business.
I do search engine optimisation (SEO) work to ensure they are found and I market their blog on social media. Loads of business owners write in a blog and think that is all they need to do but they do also need to actively market their blog and take part in different SEO activities so the search engines know they exist among the millions of other blogs.
I don’t need to be in England to do that. Most of my clients (at least 90%) find me by searching the internet and get in touch. I don’t even need to attend networking groups anymore and I actually find they don’t work for me. What does work is people finding me, watching my videos, reading my blog posts and then getting in touch, which is exactly what I do for my clients.
I started this off back in 2009 by writing an ebook about how to do it. I thought I would teach business owners how to do it themselves but most of them wanted me to do it for them so I did. That bought in consultancy fees and was far more lucrative income wise but sucked away at all my time and kept me chained to my computer. In May 2011 I started a membership site called influencer.biz – people blog and I promote. This has been a great happy medium between expecting people to do it and them wanting me to do it.
People pay a membership fee which is how my income is made. It cost £70 a month for one business so all I do is keep increasing the number of business owners who set up their blog with me until I have a few hundred. Of course in return I have to work on promoting their business.
Membership Sites
For me membership sites are a great way to earn a monthly ongoing income but many people who run them find after three or four months people drop out and stop paying unless you can keep them interested. Nowadays with money being tight you need to be able to deliver on your promise to keep people paying each month.
Marcia Charles
sylviasmith
MaDD