Whatever business or profession you are in right now, some persons somewhere out there, right now, are trying to figure out how to do your job faster, more efficient and more cost-effective with technology. And the more they breakthrough, the more obsolete your skills become. For instance, did you know that a lot of articles you read on news websites are written with or by artificial intelligence?
You get these news releases about things that are happening in sports, for example, or in business. But people are not creating some of these articles. It’s actually Artificial Intelligence that’s creating and releasing them. In fact, if you’ve read a financial earnings report in the past few years, you’ve probably read an article or press release generated by a machine. Artificial intelligence tools like Forbes’ Bertie, The Washington Post’s Heliograf, and Reuters’ Lynx, are transforming the way journalists worked, by mining mountains of data to identify potential stories for reporters. And this is just the beginning for many such examples.
The good news is that, these changes are bringing with it lots of opportunities, that if you open your mind and ride with the wave, you can reap enormous rewards. You don’t want to compete with technology; you want to figure out how to make technology work for you. In this video, you will learn 9 practical ideas anyone can use to make a lot of money with technology. These ideas, if implemented right, has the potential to give you unfair advantage over competitors who are still lagging behind. Before we get to it, be sure to subscribe to After School Africa for more insightful videos like this.
- Offer Online Coaching service
We have seen an increasing rise of fitness coaches, public speaking coaches, negotiation, relationship, business coaches and coaches on many other different fields. These people are teaching other people what they know about something over the internet. They offer one on one consulting, live training sessions and online courses. All this is done with internet technology tools.
The lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic pushed many people to adopt online meetings via Zoom, Google meet and other online conferencing tools. But this has been going on long before this. As more and more people get comfortable with online video meetings, the market for online coaches continues to expand.
If you have an area of expertise, you can build a lucrative business as a coach offering your knowledge as a service. You can use a combination of digital marketing tools like social media and blogs to promote your expertise and your service. The more people you can help solve their problem, the more money you can make. This model works in fields ranging from dating, marriage counseling to marketing, accounting, personal finance, personal development, photography, hand-craft, legal and so on.
- Self-Publish a Book to Grow Your Brand
It’s okay to want to publish a book to make money from the sales. But the success rate of unknown authors is grossly discouraging. The majority of authors don’t sell more than 30 copies of their book each month. And that doesn’t sound like a dream. One strategy that has a higher chance of success as an author is to publish a book to grow your personal or business brand. The strategy is to create a doorway that gives you permission into the hearts of your potential customers. For instance, Telecom companies don’t make money from selling SIM cards. Nowadays they give away their SIM cards for free because it gives them access to you and increases the possibility of choosing to use their network.
Let’s say you offer an innovative solution to business owners that costs $500. You publish a book targeted at business owners demonstrating your solution and expertise; and sell it at a loss of $7 per copy. Out of 100 buyers, if two people enroll for your service, you’ve made $300 profit. This means that for every $700 you invest in marketing and selling your book, it generates $1000 in revenue. It could be a lot more or even less. But, I mean, these things happen every day. Those who don’t become customers may recommend you to someone or invite you to speak at a conference of 250 people. This thing can create a ripple effect. Your book becomes your marketing tool, not the product itself. It’s called up-selling. You draw people into sales funnel with a little monetary commitment. Then pitch them on your higher value service. This concept allows you to go all out to market your book, even if you don’t profit from it, to get it into the hands of more people. The more people buy your book, the more loyal business opportunities you can get. Many successful professional coaches, business consultants and trainers use this strategy.
- Organize Events and Conferences
If you have good event and project management skills and expertise or interest in a particular field or industry, you can organize speaking events or training and get corporate sponsors. This can range from a medium to a large event. You invite industry leaders as speakers. The attraction for events like this is the size of the audience and who will be speaking at the event. This will typically require a lot of planning, teamwork and collaboration. This event can be done online or offline. You can leverage the internet to fill up the seats or quota. A successful event like this can quickly position you as a thought leader and influencer in your industry.
- Promote Your Skill as a Service
Just a few years ago, no one ever thought large organizations and multinational companies will go out of their way to ask people to ‘Like Us on Facebook’ or ‘Follow Us on Twitter. Today, even CNN ask viewers to ‘Follow Us on Twitter.’
In the past, getting your service to a wide audience was almost impossible for everyday people. It was only reserved for the wealthy and famous. But that’s no longer the case. If you are skilled in graphic design, photography, video coverage, video editing, writing, digital marketing, web development or construction, you can reach potential clients online. This will require that you deliberately build your online profile and position as knowledgeable in your craft. Then use available tools and marketplaces to find prospective clients.
- Land a ‘Real’ Jobs
In your CV, you have at most two pages to impress a recruiter, and a few minutes interview to sell yourself. The internet offers you much more room to express and demonstrate your knowledge and personality. If you build your profile and perceived expertise in your industry, a potential employer may find you attractive to join their team.
I’ve seen a lot of people who started out blogging about a topic of interest or actively putting out conversations on social media; I’ve seen them get jobs that were beyond their dreams. The internet offers unlimited opportunities to connect with people, spread ideas and information, develop friendships, influence political opinion, inspire creativity, and promote expertise. You can use it to get a job, if that is what you want.
- Start an eCommerce Marketing Business
Billions of dollars in transaction exchange hands every day for the purchase of goods and services online. People are increasingly moving to online shopping, especially as a result of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. You can start an eCommerce business with zero capital, selling other people’s products for a commission. You don’t need to worry about the storage of goods, inventories and all the other tasking processes. You simply serve as the middle man between buyers and sellers. There is an affiliate program in almost every industry. Amazon, Jumia, Linkshare are some places you can sign up and start promoting products as an affiliate.
You can also partner with local dealers, take pictures of their products and list them on popular eCommerce websites with adjusted prices. Once you receive an order, you contact your dealer to deliver the item. Anyone can do this, be you a student, graduate, side-hustler, mum, or retiree. You don’t need any specialized skills.
- Build a Platform as a Business
The 6 methods above are mostly about leveraging existing online platforms and marketplaces to support your business. However, in this case, you build your own platform as a business and generate revenue from advertising and from any of the 6 methods mentioned above. Building a publishing platform as a business takes a lot of work and time. You can run an ad to promote your service and make a sale the next day, but building a publishing platform may take from several months to years before it becomes profitable. You’ll have to give away lots of free information, for a long period of time. And it may fail after investing so much time, effort and resources. The good thing is that when you start getting a consistent and considerable amount of traffic, you can easily generate a steady flow of passive income from advertising, affiliate marketing and sales of your own products and services. Millions of websites, blogs and YouTube channels out there fall within this model.
You don’t want to compete with technology; you want to figure out how to make technology work for you. I hope this helps. If you found this video helpful, we’ll appreciate it if you’ll like and share it with someone. If you are yet to subscribe to After School Africa, now is a good time to hit the subscribe button. Until next time, YOUR SUCCESS MATTERS!
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