7 Steps to Make Your First Million

Tyrone Solee made his first million when he was 26 years old because he was tired of the rat race. Now, his passion is sharing what he’s learned on how to succeed in becoming financially free with others. On his blog Millionaire Acts, he gives tips on how to improve your financial habits as well as sharing his personal insights on wealth-building.

MoneyMax.ph sat down with Tyrone to pick his brain about his personal finance philosophy, as well as to ask how he was able to make his first million. Here’s what we learned, and here’s what you can do to make your first million.

1. Have a clear goal.

For Tyrone, becoming financially free was his ultimate goal, not just making a million for the sake of it. Even though he was making a lot of money at his job, he wasn’t happy with the stress and the way he was treated by his superiors. “I realized I would have more freedom if I didn’t have problems with finances,” he says. So he set himself the goal of being financially free from his job by making his first million. It was the motivation of being financially free that propelled him towards his goal; without it, it would have been much harder and taken much longer for Tyrone to make his first million.

What you should do: Set your goal, which should be more than just making 1 million. What do you want to have that money for? Once you answer this question, you’ll be more motivated to achieve the monetary goal.

2. Have more than one source of income.

If you want to make a millions, the surest way is to earn more. “You can earn more either by jumping into a higher-paying job, or having multiple sidelines,” Tyrone says. Even when he was still in college, Tyrone ran a business buying and selling mobile phones and mobile phone software. Because of these earnings, he was able to save and not touch his salary. He would also take lots of overtime to get more bonuses to buffer his funds.

Later, he would go on to blogging in addition to his day job, which gave him another source of income to grow his wealth even as he put investing on hold.

What you should do: Find sidelines. You can also increase your income by investing, and reaping the returns. “The best sort of income is the one you don’t have to put too much effort in – passive income,” he says. This could be from returns on your investments, ads on your blog, or others.

3. Educate yourself on your options for wealth-growing.

There are lots of options out there for growing your wealth, and picking the one that suits you requires some education and effort. At first, Tyrone invested in bond funds, because they were less risky. But a year later, he started looking into UITFs, which come with a higher level of risk. (He particularly likes  UITFs, as they have no holding period.) He also paid attention to the news to improve his decision making when it came to buying and selling stocks.

What you should do: You can start this by doing some research into the kinds of investments you can afford, and you can start with investment options by searching the internet.

4. Income – savings = expenses.

“Employees spend first before they save,” Tyrone observes. “But me, ever since, I always saved first. That certain amount was 20% minimum, but more if I know that I’m getting income elsewhere, like my blogging.”

What you should do: Before you spend, save first. When you receive your salary, immediately put away your savings, then budget the rest. This will get you towards your goal faster.

5. Spend less.

Earning more can take a lot of time; spending less is something you can do right now. On his way to his first million, Tyrone was “really, really, really, really, miserly” restricting himself to a tight budget and completely focusing on saving money. Some of his extreme miserly moments included never buying new clothes and just using his dad’s old clothes, standing in line for hours for public transportation, and limiting himself to bring a pack lunch a day.

Of course, now he allows himself to enjoy some of his wealth; there is such a thing as being too miserly after all. Spending less is a quick way to increase your cash flow to positive, but allow yourself to enjoy some of your money, too.

What you should do: Track your spending and account for every penny, and see where you can cut your expenses down. But you can also set aside money for guilt-free spending, so you don’t feel like saving is a joyless slog. “Downgrade your needs, or eliminate some of your wants,” Tyrone advises. “But you have to enjoy some of your money. You’re working for it!”

6. Accept that you’re going to make mistakes.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Tyrone. When he was younger, he lent money to other people’s entrepreneurial ventures that ended with them disappearing with their debts to him unpaid. “What I learned there is don’t be too trusting, especially with money.” He also lost money in the stock market by investing before he was ready, and pulling out his money at the first sign of loss. “I was scared,” he admits.

What you should do: Learn from your financial mistakes. Tyrone sprang from his stock market setback by studying the market, and now, he has a much healthier portfolio and a greater knowledge of what to invest in. If you make any mistakes in your journey, learn from it and improve upon it so that you can make progress towards your goal.

7. Keep track of your progress.

To track his progress, Tyrone kept an Excel file of all his investments and savings, which he updated every month. The day he finally reached the goal “was really memorable. It took 4 years and 7 months after I graduated to make my first million, and in April 2009, it finally happened. I felt so accomplished,” he says.

Now that he’s long past the 1 million marker, Tyrone’s goal is to make sure that his Excel file shows an increase every month.

What you should do: Keep track of your financial progress so you know how close you are to reaching your goal, and make course corrections just in case things aren’t going as well as you’d like.

Final Thoughts

Making your first million won’t be easy. And it may take you longer than the 4 years and 7 months that it took Tyrone. But if you follow his advice above, make the necessary adjustments to your income and your attitude towards money, and keep track of your progress, you could be well on your way not just to your first million, but to true financial freedom. “Money is not the be-all end-all of everything,” Tyrone says. “I still want to prove myself, but now I feel like I’ve achieved a lot already.”

5 Personality Traits That Fits Affiliate Marketing Industry

As you know, the fruits of affiliate marketing is very much appealing to a wide crowd. Just think of this, who would not want to earn four to five figures of dollars a day while working from home with your loved ones? If you still don’t know what affiliate marketing can give you, better read What is affiliate marketing and how it works.

There’s a reality that the rewards one can get from affiliate marketing are mostly reserved for those people with personalities and traits that can survive and thrive in this kind of industry.

Apparently, most of the people attracted here are the introverts, the socially awkward, those kind of people who prefer to stay home all day, bookworms, gamers, artists, those thinking people who wants to get out of the organizational ladder.

People are not well informed regarding these kind of business. With all those “marketing scams” buzzing all throughout the country, you cannot blame people to have a wrong impression with anything that has the word “marketing”. Funny and lame but it’s true and that is why there are only few risk takers who are in this kind of business. Do you think you fit here?

Not all people who gets into the internet marketing game survive. Here are the kinds of people who struggle in affiliate marketing:

• The impatient, and those who lack focus.
• Anybody who gets restless at the thought of long hours spinning in circles with no apparent progress.
• People who consider their opinions above hard data.
• Those people who don’t care to increase expand their knowledge

and here are the usual..

Personality traits that fits affiliate marketing industry:

1. Disciplined. Well we all know in affiliate marketing, you are the one who holds your time. No boss or supervisor that will watch over you and therefore you need to be disciplined enough to do your game plan whether you feel like it or not.

2. Willing to learn. The rules-of-the-game in this kind of industry is ever changing, if you will not devote yourself in learning the the trends, you will be out of the game and others will simply outplay you. You need to constantly seek knowledge from the leaders in the industry. If you want to be on the top, innovation is a must.

3. Determined. As long as you love what you’re doing, you’ll be able to get to the point where you want to be. The natural drive to push yourself to workout your stuff is always there specially if you feel like you’re just playing. There are bunch of affiliate marketers out there lack determination and with just couple of weeks or months, they fade away.

4. Optimistic. One of the key attitude for basically achieving anything is to have a positive outlook. No one succeeded being negative on what he believes. If your mind can conceive that you can, you probably can achieve it.

5. Patient. Big part of affiliate marketing is waiting. Very similar to fishing, you’ll wait until a big fish get caught in the bait. Patience is a virtue and is true especially in affiliate marketing so better get a lot of it.

There are only small percentage of people who are diving into the game of affiliate marketing who are actually earning money online. A lot of new people in internet marketing quit before they get their first sale because they lack patience.

The qualities mentioned above are needed in order to succeed as an affiliate marketer. If you think you you’re a good fit for this kind of business then you better start taking actions now.

 What is Affiliate Marketing and How it Works

What is affiliate marketing and how does it work? Welcome! Most likely, you’re here because you are interested on how this whole affiliate marketing and online marketing in general works. If you’re an Internet citizen like us, I want to help you to earn your first income online too! You’ll discover here how online marketing can change your life. This post will be a long read and is not suitable for impatient people and losers. Enough of the intro, ready? Here we go.

Affiliate marketing is an online marketing strategy in which you promote other people’s products in the internet and earn through the commissions you receive after a successful sale. The commissions you can earn through affiliate marketing can range from few dollars to thousands of dollars. Bloggers who have been into online marketing for years sure knows what affiliate marketing is, how it works, and how much profit you can earn from it online.

Online marketing in the world is fast growing. Numerous ecommerce sites such as Lazada, Zalora, Ebay, and Amazon offer affiliate programs in their sites. Most likely that you’ve already seen ads from these online shops on different websites and in facebook as well. Not so many people in the world have entered the internet marketing yet as it is just starting in other countries and at it’s infant to toddler stage.

Here’s a simple illustration on how affiliate marketing works online:

Affiliate Marketer or Publisher

• Creates ways to reach the target consumer of the product or services being promoted.
• Responsible for ethically promoting the products.
• The one who signs up for the affiliate program provided by the merchants or online shops.

Merchant or Advertiser

• Company who creates the products or provides services.
• Pays other people that help them sell and promote the business.

Consumer

• The one who pays for the actual product or service being offered.
• The one who is in need or interested.
• The one who takes action through clicking the link.

In a nutshell, an affiliate marketer creates ways for the merchant to reach its target customers. There are a lot of things incorporated in this and that’s the goal of this blog.
One of the problems I’ve encountered from people who are getting stared in affiliate marketing, who are really zero even in blogging, is the jargon used. They get drowned with the terms used in this industry so as a start, provided below is a list of common terms used in affiliate marketing and internet marketing in general:

• Anchor Text. Anchor text is the highlighted piece of text that is hyperlinked (see hyperlink) so that when you click on it you follow the link to another webpage or another website.
• Backlinks are links on other pages that will direct consumers and search engines to your page. They’re also referred to as “Inbound Links”.
• Call to Action. Usually in a form of button that asks your potential customers, readers, leads, visitors to take action.
• Affiliate Marketplace is basically the online shop that offers affiliate programs.
• Content is the material found in a document or publication. The material can be text, images, video, whitepapers, infographics etc.
• The term Conversion simply refers to the process of making a visitor be “converted” to a customer
• Domain Name is the address of your website, i.e. mybusiness.com
• Text Link is a word, phrase, or image you can click that directs you other reference web page.
• Landing Page is simply the page on the website where you want the people to land on. The very purpose of a landing page is to “convert” the visitor to a lead or customer.
• Niche in marketing terms is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The process of optimizing all of the possible factors whether internal or external to get high ranking web pages.
• Opt-in. When a person “opts in,” they’re usually making themselves available for communication with you (and/or your business). Usually, prospects opts-in and give their email address in exchange for something valuable like ebook or video materials.

Frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing:

Hopefully at this very moment, you already have an idea what affiliate marketing is and how it works in general. If you still have questions, you can just simply ask questions in the comment section below and let’s discuss your queries. Here are the common questions asked by people with regards to what affiliate marketing is and how it works:

1. Is affiliate marketing or online marketing Illegal or scam? Neither illegal or scam. There are many bloggers in the world now who are actually earning dollars through affiliate marketing. Reputable online shops offers affiliate programs and they pay their affiliates properly.
2. How to find products to promote? You can find products in well-known affiliate marketplace such as clickbank, CJ Affiliate, Amazon, and a lot more. You can join internet marketing forums and subscribe to some of the topics where you can get new products to promote.
3. Is blogging necessary to promote products using the links provided by the merchants? The answer is no. There are numerous ways you can promote an affiliate product. You can use pay-per-click or PPC or advertising to promote products but this is more like the cowboy way of doing things. Though these methods work, the best way to make the most out of your affiliate marketing opportunities is still it to make and maintain a blog and use it in different ways of promotion.
4. How much does it cost to join an affiliate program? Actually, there is no charge for signing up an affiliate program however, some merchants requires you to have a website or a facebook fan page or similar source of traffic where you can promote your products. This is the part that dictates how much you will be spending in order to this business.
5. What qualifications do I need to become an affiliate marketer? This is the good thing about this business. You don’t need a degree to start affiliate marketing. All you need is the willingness to learn, you are well conditioned and disciplined to do all the necessary steps in order to start. Having good copywriting skills and marketing skills will be an added advantage though.
6. How much can you earn from affiliate marketing? There’s no limit to the amount you can earn in this kind of business but only a limited thinking that limits your earning. The earnings you will be getting will be depending on the amount of sale you make.
7. I’m very much interested but I don’t know where to start. That’s the main point of this site, to give information to those people who want to dive into the world of internet marketing. We’ve gathered all of the best information all over the internet and added our experiences too so that you won’t be doing it yourself.

I’m hoping that this guide to your internet marketing adventure will help you not just to get started but keep you going. If you have questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.

Small Business Ideas For Introverts and Shy People

In this post, we’ll present several small business ideas for introverts and the shy people. Don’t get me wrong here, I know the difference between a shy and an introvert and we’re not going to talk about it here. There are a lot of skilled and intelligent introverts however, what makes them not fit into the typical business setup is they usually get drained with the social interactions involved.

The businesses that will fit the introverts are the businesses that will not require or will not involve a lot of team work or personal selling. Introverts love to work on their own and as much as possible work from the comfort of their own house or room.

I am an introvert myself and I also work at home. So if you are an introvert like me who opt to stay at home most of the time, then this is for you! If you know somebody or you have friends who are also introverts and shy and they want to start a business, they will definitely love this post. You’re free to share it with them 

1. Web Designer – There are a lot of introverts in this kind of business. I don’t know but I’ve just heard that there are many forms of art where mild autism is involved. Well anyways. Web designing can be done purely online and you can do the payment online, marketing online, send the design online, and etc.

If you are into arts and an introvert, web design business is for you.

2. Web Developer – Being a web developer, like web designer can be a good business for introverts. Introverts love to think whether it be an idealism, a solution to a problem, going to another world, or what not, web development is one of those businesses introverts can get themselves into.

3. SEO – SEO includes psychology, statistics, arts, emotion, and etc. If you’re an introvert who loves to learn many things then SEO is for you. Such an immense topic but usually can be done with just common sense. Again, all transaction can be done online 

4. Blogging – Blogging has been a way to express one’s self. However, with the advent of the technology,  the game has changed and blogging has become the trend on the internet. Introverts are typically skilled people and one of the ways they can showcase it without the physical social interaction is through blogging. It’s up to you if you want to stay anonymous or reveal your identity. The thing here is that there are bunch of introverts now in this kind of business who became millionaires. Perfect!

5. Fiction Writing (Novels, Romance,  etc.) – If you’re the type of introvert who love to create your own world then this is perfect for you! Get your thoughts written and make a business out of it! Just learn how to write then voila!

6. Music Writer – Analytical and creative thinking is one of the strongest points for introverts. If you happen to have skills in music such as arranging scores or lyrics writing, you can make a business out of it!

7. Painter – This is a no brainer Lol. If you’re into painting you can always lock yourself in your room the whole week just and do some awesome artworks and then sell your stuffs online or join an art exhibit.

8. Pet Care Taker – This is not really that lucrative business (or is it?) but hey! If you’re living in a subdivision with bunch of pet owners, you may want to place yourself as a pet care taker. Since you’re just at home, why not earn while playing and feeding some cute cats, dogs, and giraffes and cobras? LOL you get the point.

9. Craft Related Business – If you love to bake cakes or you’re into building cool DIY stuffs, then create a business out of it! You can sell personalize items such as pouch, bracelets, home decors, and etc. It’s all up to you! As long as it can be monetize and there are people appreciate your crafts, you earn from it!

10. Translator – If you know 2 or 3 or more languages, then make a business out of that! Be a translator or write a book regarding learning a language then sell it. What you only need is to get that book done and let others do the marketing for you.

This list is still to be updated. Just revisit this post for more. 

Introverts don’t crave much for glorification and don’t want to be the center of attraction. Despite their unparalleled abilities, they seem to be left out in terms of the business side of things. Most of the time, business minded people and marketers are the ones who benefit and get the most out of introverts’ skills. I want to get rid or at least make an awareness regarding this taking advantage of our skilled kababayans.

Well that’s it! I hope you’ve learned something from this post! Don’t forget to share this with your introverted friends! If you got something to share you do for a living or just want to say hi, type it in the comment section below and don’t forget to subscribe! 

Earn Money Online (The Legit Way!)

Tired of the everyday traffic that doesn’t seem to stop? That instead of just spending 8 hours for office work, you extend up to 10 hours or more if the traffic is heavy? Read more as we’ll cover a good topic where you will learn legit ways how to earn and make money online. If you’re planning to work from home because you want to have more time with your family, keep on reading!

Way back then, working to earn money online in doesn’t sound legitimate for many. Many people dreamed of earning passive income and live the lifestyle they want but apparently, only few people are taking action building their online business.There are people who started earning money online without any investment but now are earning big which you may not believe if you are not aware of this kind of money making scheme.

These kind of businesse  and jobs may sound alien if you just talk to regular people. Most of them will not believe that there are some people who are really making huge revenues from their online businesses and that they can do the same thing too. However, with today’s increasing number of internet users, the knowledge regarding online businesses fairly increased too. This kind of money making scheme can be done at minimal cost or for free. Yes, even without any monetary investments. Although there are a lot of things to learn at first but it’s worth the learning as a lot of businesses now  are migrating from the traditional business to online business trend.

In this post I’ll be showing you ways how moms and even students at home can make extra income or earnings online. Invest in this kind of knowledge as you can learn and do this even if you still have a day job. You can start earning extra income on a part-time basis then go full time later on.

I. Become a freelancer and earn money online

Becoming a freelancer is one of the most common legit things people do to earn money online. Some countries are now becoming widely known to be the go-to place for companies who want to outsource talents, skills, and services. There are a lot of people today who are doing virtual assistant jobs. Some people started it on a part time basis but later on they made it full time.

This business is good especially if you want a low-cost investment business. If you want to be in this kind of business, you can earn fast up to more than P20,000.00 a month. Although it actually depends on what service you are going to offer. There are bunch of services you can apply for online.

1. Social Media Assistant/Manager
2. Graphic Artist/ Graphic Designer
3. Application developer
4. Content Writer
5. Virtual Assistant
6. Technical support
7. Customer Service
8. Online Translator
9. Online Video editor
10. Web Designer & Developer
11. Data Entry and Online Typing Jobs
12. Search Engine Optimization Services (SEO)
13. etc.

These are the top freelancing services people are hooked right now in making money in online. You may want to start learning now by just simply searching on google while you are having your day job and once you have the skill, do apply for part-time, then go full-time, then go big time, there are bunch of people who get rich in this kind of business.

II. Sell something and earn money online

You can also sell products or some secondhand stuffs to earn money online. Selling tangible or digital products is becoming popular now in the internet.  There are a lot of e-commerce website popping out on the internet like mushrooms. Here’s the list of stuffs you can sell online.

1. Sell items that you don’t use such as bags, shoes, shirts, toys, collectibles, books, musical instruments, cars, gadgets, etc.
2. Sell e-books. If you are into blogging, it can be one of your sources of income. If you have expertise in something, write an e-book and sell it online. You can also write things that people are interested in.
3. Sell video courses online. Again if you are expert in something, create a series of video tutorials and sell them online.

III. Provide Tutorial Services and Earn Money Online

Tutorial services online is another famous way to earn money online. If you have some expertise in just about anything, you can make money out of it by simply providing tutorial services for other people. This is a good opportunity to earn online even without big investment.

1. Teach Language Online – If you speak other language or if you know some clients who wants to learn your native language, this can be a online source of income too. 
2. Online Webinars – With today’s technology even seminars can now be easily conducted online through webinars. You can use skype, google hangouts, and other similar applications that will do the job. Again, if you’re good in just about anything, you can earn money out of that.

IV. Join Affiliate Programs

Joining affiliate programs is yet another great way to earn money online. Once you’re already affiliated, you promote products or services from affiliate sources and earn commissions. If you know how to blog and add links to your contents, you can promote products or services by blogging and earn money through it. Here’s some of the top affiliate sites you can join in.

1. Clickbank affiliate program
2. Commision Junction affiliate program

There are a lot of affiliate programs in the web, just search for it and see what fits your shoes. This can be lucrative source of income as you can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars.

V. Earn money through Blogging

One of most popular ways to earn money online is through blogging. If you love to share about anything under the sun, you might want to consider this. You can create a free blog with google’s blogger and self hosted wordpress blog. Once you established your blogging site, here are some of the popular ways to monetize it.

1. Advertisements
2. Paid or Sponsored Post
3. Selling your own e-book
4. Selling your own Video Course
5. Become an Affiliate and sell affiliate products
6. Selling your Blog for profit

These just the popular ways on how you can make money online by blogging. There are allot more out there. If you don’t know how to blog yet, you can always ask uncle google to give the information to you.

Earn Online: With or Without investment?

Although most of the people are really into the idea of making money without any investments or money going out of in their pocket, we cannot change the fact that if you want to grow your business fast, you need to invest some money, time, and effort. We’ve listed here below some of the pros and cons of investing money on your online business.

With Investment

• If you invest money for a mentor regarding your online business, you’ll have somebody to guide you on the step by step process.
• You’ll be able to have a clear direction regarding your business.
• No wasted time. You can outsource those things that are not of your forte especially technical matters.
• There’s someone you can consult if you lack knowledge on some areas
• etc.

Without Monetary Investment

• You need to do the research and learn everything by yourself.
• You’ll have so much time consumed.
• There’s a chance of having no clear direction.
• etc.

The decision is all up to you depending on your situation.

Hope this post gave you ideas on where you might want to focus your energy and make some cash. Next thing is to make your plans, execute, and discipline yourself. Soon, you’ll earn and be able to save money for future use. If you have some comments or suggestions, other things to add that we’re not able to mention in this blog post, just share them in the comment area below and have a great day!