Investing in CryptoCurrency 2018

Many people are looking for alternative forms of investment in 2018. With the stock market at all time highs and with the idea that a recession may be on the horizon many people are scared of losing their hard earned 401k or private investment accounts.

The sentiment surrounding the current market is admirable. However, bubbles always burst.

Many have claimed that the CryptoCurrency boom is also a giant bubble waiting to pop.

Are these the people that have dedicated a considerable quantity of time to learning about CryptoCurrency and the technology behind it?

Do those that are discounting blockchain technology and CryptoCurrency fully understand that there are options other than Bitcoin to be invested in?

Did you know that many large corporations have adopted Bitcoin and alternative CryptoCurrencies, commonly referred to as AltCoins, as a valid payment method?

There are many reasons that CryptoCurrency is one of the best investment opportunities of 2018 and there is a reason that CryptoCurrency has changed my life for the better.

It can change yours too. Just hear me out.

Are you tired of the big banks stealing from you?

You may not realize that banks are stealing from you every day that you have money in an account. It can be checking, savings, even CD’s and Money Market accounts.

Let’s talk numbers. Inflation in the US last year was 2.7% due to all sorts of environmental factors including the printing of more money.

The average savings account earns approximately 0.001% on the overall balance month to month.

Even the best CD’s for the short term (3-6 months) will allow you to only earn around 1.2% on your money.

So let’s say you invest all of your money in the highest yield account you can at 1.2% for 6 months. You would see a return of about 2.4% over the course of the year if you kept your cash invested over all of 2018.

Since 2.4% is less than 2.7% you are losing 0.3% on your money every single year in simple terms.

Still not convinced the banks are stealing your money? Keep reading.

In 2008 when Congress approved the $700 billion bailout for the banks after they issued countless subprime home loans and suddenly realized that borrowers were unable to pay them back, the banks stole from you even more blatantly than they do every single day.

Why is it that your government decided to bail these banks out, but not absolve your mortgage debt?

If you had a home loan in 2008 and didn’t foreclose or short sale, you may still be paying on a mortgage and actually be upside down in your home.

When the banks got bailed out, did they bail out those folks who couldn’t pay their mortgages? No… unfortunately they did not.

Now, let’s take the population of the United States in 2008. That number, according to the government census was 304.1 million people.

About 63% of that population were between the ages of 18 and 65. So likely they were not under their parents roof/working, or they were retired and eligible to draw Social Security.

If you were to issue a check to every United States citizen included in that 63%… about 191.5 million people would have gotten a check for $3,653.00.

That may not seem like a lot, but nobody can seem to recall the banks paying it forward and returning to you any interest or helping you with any payment programs.

They took people’s houses that couldn’t afford to keep paying, which sounds a lot like stealing to me.

So what if I told you that you no longer needed to deal with the Federal Reserve?

What if I told you that there was a finite limit of the amount of currency you could “print”?

What if Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, US Bank, and all the others no longer had control over your life?

Would you be interested in giving that a shot?

If so, keep reading. If not, that’s understandable. Many prefer to stick to what they know and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

What is Bitcoin?

The Bitcoin blockchain was first created in 2009 by an unknown inventor who went under the alias of Satoshi Nakamoto. The true inventor has yet to come forward, or at least those who follow Bitcoin are unsure whether or not to believe if the real Satoshi has exposed their self.

There is a total of 21 million Bitcoin to be mined and the estimated date that all Bitcoin will be mined is due in the year 2140. It is impossible to predict the exact date and time due to the ever changing mining environment.

Essentially, Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that allows peer-to-peer or over the network transactions without the support of a middle-man or centralized bank. This is where the term decentralization is derived.

You may have seen Bitcoin denoted as $BTC many times on the internet or social media sites.

Modern encryption technology allows those using Bitcoin to perform transactions anonymously. There must be a network in place of “miners” that generate the tokens based on proof of work and approve transactions.

Without this network a transaction cannot be confirmed or completed. In addition, if this network does not recognize the transaction as a true or real transaction, it rejects the transfer completely preventing any sort of fraudulent activity.

Now that you get the idea behind Bitcoin, let’s talk about the technology behind it.

This is by far the most important part, because even if you don’t trust the idea of Bitcoin, you may trust the idea of blockchain technology.

What is Blockchain Technology?

For simplicity, imagine you are keeping the books at a company. Any company.

Okay, now every time a transaction is made, you write it down with a very unique identifier or confirmation number. This book is continually populated and there is never a missed transaction.

Now imagine that the book is now controlled by a large number of individuals all writing continuously tracking every transaction. No central book exists, so someone from engineering cannot come in and alter this book without making it different from the other books.

Think about the fact that in order for a transaction to occur, it has to be validated across all of these books and confirmed. If someone were to alter one particular book, and now all the books did not match, the transaction being placed on the altered book would be deemed as fraudulent or untrue.

This seems a bit complicated, but really it is quite simple. If every computer that is supporting the blockchain network does not agree that this is the true chain, then the transaction will not be completed.

The benefit of blockchain is that there cannot be any single lapse in the chain. It would have to fail across the entire network.

Since this is a decentralized network and anonymously controlled by millions of processing units around the world, no one hacker can access the entire network and break the real blockchain.

If this sounds unbelievable, then why is it that almost 30 years after blockchain technology was created, has it yet to have been broken?

There is no more error, no more government printing more or extending a chain. Once the blockchain is set, it is run until it’s complete.

After that, the network supporting the blockchain exists simply to confirm transactions. Hopefully you now understand blockchain. So let’s move on beyond Bitcoin and the basics of blockchain technology and talk about it’s other applications.

Are there CryptoCurrencies other than those that CNBC and Yahoo Finance shove down everyone’s throats?

If you have any sort of financial knowledge you have probably seen articles from CNBC, Yahoo Finance, and other entities discussing what I am discussing here… CryptoCurrency.

Maybe you watch Bloomberg on the television and it has been a hot topic there as well. Do you think that these so-called industry experts and analysts really understand what it is they are talking about?

If you didn’t know already, there are other CryptoCurrencies aside from Bitcoin.

Here are just a few of the top market cap coins to date:

The folks on Wall St. and those pumping stocks on TV have figured this out.

Now they have their skin in the game and want to make their own money.

What do they do?

They promote a particular currency and discuss its purpose hoping to convince you to buy this currency, increase its value, and then they will sell making a huge profit.

Take for example Ripple, or $XRP. This is a relatively centralized bank based coin that CNBC has been on a hot streak of promoting lately. The value rose considerably as shown in the chart below once it became a “mainstream” coin.

However, what many don’t know is that there are far more coins out there than what the mainstream media is promoting. These AltCoins actually have much better technology behind them and the white papers are publicly available for review.

The point here is that just because a so-called expert pretends to know CryptoCurrency, they may not understand that the purpose behind CryptoCurrency and blockchain technology is not so that we can remain centralized within the banks using Ripple.

The purpose is all the wonderful day-to-day applications that different CryptoCurrencies support.

Currently, you can use CryptoCurrency debit cards to purchase items just like you would with a regular debit card anywhere that accepts Visa, MasterCard, etc.

Support for CryptoCurrency is only increasing with the ability to book hotels on Expedia, purchase goods on Overstock, buy Xbox Games, perform Real Estate sales or transactions, and even buy a McLaren from my good friends at McLaren Newport Beach.

I am Koenigsegg fan myself but I digress.

What coins should you invest in? Personally, I am invested across the board in the best technologies I can find. I have read countless white papers and have a few favorites in almost every category.

Some think they may have missed the CryptoCurrency boom, but that’s not true.

The current market cap of all coins is approximately $502.20 billion whereas the total current market cap of the stock market is $18.5 Trillion. If even 10% of that wealth shifts to CryptoCurrency you will see unfathomable gains.

I suggest you start your own research, read some white papers, and purchase some AltCoins based on what you feel is right. If you’re wondering where to do so? I have the answer for you.

Where can I purchase these AltCoins?

You have probably heard of the main Crypto platforms and exchanges like CoinBase or the background exchange owned by CoinBase called GDAX (sign in with your CoinBase account).

These platforms automatically generate you a wallet to store your cryptocurrency in and this will allow you to transfer currency to or from that platform.

For fiat ($USD, etc) purchases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin this would be an okay place to start investing.

If you are looking to invest in AltCoins which is a much more lucrative investment for 2018 profit then I would recommend the exchange Binance. Binance has access to countless coins and these currencies have much smaller market caps or values.

Many of these coins have seen gains in the upwards of 1,000-2,000% in under a year. I’m not saying that you should go into investing all of your fiat currency into a coin called $DOGE or $DRGN… but there are many coins such as $ICX that would be a great place to start.

If you are interesting in investing in AltCoins sign up for Binance today by clicking here.

Binance is an asian run website, but it has always been secure for me and can be trusted. I have enabled multiple authentication methods that serve as added security for the site and prevent hackers from stealing funds.

Remember to follow the security protocol of every exchange and PROTECT YOUR ASSETS.

How CryptoCurrency changed my life and why CryptoCurrency is a top investment of 2018…

If you still need convincing that CryptoCurrency will be one of the top investments in 2018 then here’s where I tell my personal experience with CryptoCurrency.

I bought Bitcoin in 2016 when a friend explained to me Blockchain technology.

I wasn’t interested in the “digital gold”, I was interested in the technology behind it and what it could do for the global marketplace.

The idea that I can send currency to my friends in Germany, Russia, Spain, the UK, or anywhere else on the planet was exciting. Whether it be for a birthday present, some awesome imported German Beer, or just to pay them for helping me out with a homework problem this seemed like a great idea.

When I first started reading white papers on AltCoins (papers outlining the technologies behind the currency and the intended purpose) I realized that Bitcoin transaction fees and the speed of the transactions could be enhanced.

I immediately starting diversifying my investments into coins like $RDD, $XRP, $STRAT, etc.

This is when CryptoCurrency changed my life. Within three months I had doubled my initial investment. I then dedicated my next two paychecks to CryptoCurrency as the technology began to catch steam.

Not only was I gaining in quantity of $BTC (Bitcoin) because of the increase in value of my investments, I was making $USD like mad.

I stopped caring about $USD almost completely and made it my mission to gain as much $BTC as possible.

To date I have made 5,000% on my initial portfolio investment and I own 14 different types of CryptoCurrency assets. Many people have haggled me to cash out for fiat, but I believe in the future and I believe in Crypto.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not an idiot. I paid off my student loans, I paid off my home, and I paid off all my consumer credit debt and my vehicle. Now, I’m waiting for the day that CryptoCurrency is the only currency.

Humor me, think about how often you use cash for a second.

If you find yourself using a card for every day to day transaction, you are already using digital currency. However, the technology is weak, outdated, and easy to hack.

If you don’t believe that this will be the norm one day. That’s perfectly fine. If you don’t believe the current value of $BTC is what it should be, that’s also fine.

If you want to know more or talk further about CryptoCurrency in general. Drop me a comment below and I’d be happy to talk it over and respond personally to your questions and comments.

Share with your friends on Social Media and leave a comment below with your new $RDD wallet address and I will send you 1 $RDD as a thank you.

Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only.  It is not intended to be investment advice.  Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Investing in ETFs 2018

Exchange Traded Funds:

The second most important investment of 2018 behind Real Estate, Exchange Traded Funds can provide great upside and potential growth for your money.

Many people aren’t even sure what exchange traded funds (ETFs) are in the first place. Well allow me to put it in the simplest form that I can think up:

ETFs are essentially funds, much like stocks, that can be traded on the major exchanges. This includes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

There are other exchanges such as the OTCBB for smaller companies that have issued initial public offerings (IPOs) of shares but we will stay away from those for now as they are generally deemed Penny Stocks and not meant for year long investment.

An ETF holds different assets. These assets can be in the form of commodities like gold or silver, or maybe a variety of stocks and bonds, or both.

ETFs allow you the ability to invest in many different types of assets at once and generally track the market based on the value of the assets that they hold.

So you  may be asking why ETFs would make the list of the best investments of 2018. Well, that’s easy.

ETFs increase and decrease in value when the overall market indices do the same. When we are in a bull market, or a market that is generally rising in simpler terms, it is easy to generate passive revenue from ETFs.

If the overall market, or more specifically the market surrounding an ETFs holdings is increasing, then your investment also increases accordingly.

So why wouldn’t you just invest in individual stocks and hope for the big gains?

ETFs are easier than picking individual stocks because they automatically diversify your portfolio and allow you to start investing for less up front cost.

When you pick individual stocks you may have to invest $150 a share or more.

For example, take Tesla…a company growing in popularity over recent years that swings pretty heavily in stock price and has seen solid gains overall.

If you were to invest in Tesla at the time this article was written you would have to come up with around $340/share.

This is a lot of money when you first begin to allocate portions of your wealth to the market. In addition, you are limited to purchasing whole shares of Tesla’s stock which means if you have less than $680 you are unable to buy 2 shares of Tesla stock.

ETFs allow discounted prices for investors, but still allow you to hold some sort of stake in popular stocks.

Say an ETF has holdings in Tesla and Tesla does well overall. You see gains in your portfolio proportionate to the exposure that ETF has to that particular stock.

Quite often, you can purchase stake in an ETF for a much less up front investment than buying particular stocks directly.

Many ETFs trade below $100 so you can accumulate a much larger quantity of holdings in that ETF. In addition, the money you make on your investment can grow at a more rapid rate than it would if you were only able to buy a singular share of individual stock.

This is especially the case if that stock underperforms its associated sector and the ETF you have invested in tracks the overall sector.

Most people believe that they can beat the overall market through day trading, but generally speaking, that is not true. Up to 93% of those who call themselves “day-traders” fail to exceed the gains of the S&P 500 year over year.

Simply put, if you were to invest in just the S&P 500 you would have seen around a 10% gain year over year over the past 2o years. Financial advisors, traders, and investment bankers actually only see up to around 5-6% gains per year on average.

Get started investing in ETFs and generating returns on your investments today. Sign up for RobinHood today and invest with zero trading fees!

If you still have questions about ETFs ask them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer!

Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only.  It is not intended to be investment advice.  Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Investing In Real Estate 2018

Real Estate:

It is a widely known fact that humans need food, water, and shelter to survive.

As a firm believer in supply and demand, and as the population of the world increases, real estate will become increasingly harder to come by in the future. This means that the overall price of real estate will increase across the board.

If you position yourself to own real estate before an area becomes too dense, desirable, and expensive to purchase property, you will be among those profiting from their real estate holdings.

Investing in real estate doesn’t have to be a complicated process. With the right research you will be able to find an affordable property that meets your needs.

So, what are some critical things to think about to ensure you choose the RIGHT real estate?

  • Location:

When choosing the location of an investment property it is always important to remember that areas that seem to be over-extended or extremely sought after are not necessarily your best options.

For example, if you look at the city of San Francisco, California, you would probably think that since this is a desirable place to live and is increasing in population year over year that it will be a profitable area to invest.

If you look at rent prices year over year, however, you may realize that they are actually taking a turn downwards.

This may signal that the real estate market in this particular area is in a bubble and that these high property valuations may not hold up for much longer.

When choosing a location to purchase property always remember to look at:

The Surrounding Neighborhood: Would you raise a family here? Are there local parks? Nicer homes? Nicer vehicles in the driveways?

If you are able to answer “Yes” to all of the above questions… This neighborhood will likely remain desirable in the future.

After all, the general rule to purchasing a new property is to “purchase the worst home in the nicest neighborhood”.

This leads me to the next key element of purchasing real estate.

  • Renovation Potential:

Does this home have a desirable floor plan but is outdated on the interior or exterior? You may be in luck.

Desirable floor plans offer great renovation potential. As trends change, they still seem to favor some very particular floor plans. One very common floor plan that investors focus on is a very open and airy home.

Generally speaking, people interested in purchasing the home after you, or renting from you while you own the property will seek out open floor plans as a key element on their list of wants.

If this is the case, an open floor plan with a bright airy kitchen and living area may be the ticket to selling for a profit in the future or renting at an escalated rate.

Some quick renovations that can add a considerable amount of equity and desirability to your investment property can be the kitchen appliances, cabinets, sink, and faucets.

If you start with these items, you may be attacking the single most important piece of your home that will create a legitimate return on investment.

Kitchens have been a focal point of homes for years, and the trend of having an upgraded kitchen is not going anywhere soon.

The next most important upgrade would likely be flooring. If you manage to strip your investment property of outdated flooring and install hardwood, tile, or laminate, you may be able to quickly increase your properties value without breaking the bank.

Sometimes flooring can run as low as $1.00 per sq. ft even at big box stores. However, if you find a local flooring liquidator you may be able to swing a free install along with your purchase.

The last critical component of your real estate search should be the growth potential.

  • Growth Potential:

Is this area increasing in population at a rapid rate? Many investors purchase property in America’s fastest growing cities in order to ensure that demand will be met.

However, it is important to understand the demographic you would like to rent or sell to in the future.

Is this property near a college or university? Would you rent to students? What is the growth rate of this university?

Many of the California State Universities, as an example, have experienced a large influx of applications in recent years.

With new pressure on younger generations to obtain a degree, students are seeking schools that may be cheaper, yet still prestigious enough to land them a job.

If the real estate you invest in is near a rapidly growing university, you may be able to increase your rental prices as the prices of on campus living increase.

In addition, many college students seek out roommates, so paying the rent should be less of a concern.

Lastly, there will be no shortage of renters in this area as campus housing cannot support the rapid increase in the student body population.

You may be concerned about the cost of investing in real estate, and that is understandable. Down payments for investment properties aren’t always easy to obtain.

So what if you don’t have enough savings to put the down payment on an investment property?

Are there other options?

The answer is… YES!

With modern advancements and the widespread implementation of crowdfunding for new investment opportunities, real estate crowdfunding is emerging as a premier opportunity for those who are currently unable to purchase property on their own.

In addition, crowdfunding platforms like RealtyShares allow you to purchase equity in different real estate ventures including basic single family rental properties and even multi-family complexes.

You can actually start investing in Real Estate with as little as $5,000.

Why is this so important? Utilizing crowdfunding platforms like RealtyShares allows ordinary people without large amounts of free capital to invest in cities all across the nation.

This means you aren’t even required to live in the city you are investing in.

Say you do have a large amount of free cash flow to invest, yet you don’t want to take all of the risk yourself. Real estate crowdfunding platforms allow you, the primary investor, to reach out to others across the globe in order to raise the funds necessary to invest fully.

Want more details? Check out RealtyShares for more information on how the platform works and sign up today.

Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only.  It is not intended to be investment advice.  Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

The Best Investment Opportunities For 2018

 

 

As the New Year is now in full swing, you may be reconsidering your current financial situation and may be interested in pursuing new investment opportunities.

Here is my unique take on the 4 best investment opportunities for 2018 and why you should be focusing on these key items over the course of the year.

Short List of Opportunities:

  1. Real Estate
  2. Exchange Traded Funds
  3. Cryptocurrency
  4. Personal Education

Let’s break each of these down and talk about the potential benefits of sinking additional funds, including that 2018 tax return, into one of these categories.

Simply click one of the items in the short list and read all about why that option is a great investment opportunity for 2018.

Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only.  It is not intended to be investment advice.  Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

Wealthy Affiliate Review 2018: My One Year Anniversary

Last year, in 2017, I realized that my day job would not fulfill my dreams of living financially free in my mid-20’s. I immediately started seeking out opportunities to create additional income in my spare time.

I poured over hundreds of sites promising a wide variety of “Get Rich Quick” schemes.

I went through every “Real-Estate Flipping Guru” on the internet.

I did the “Free-Entry Course” of every MLM Marketing scam on the internet.

I purchased three different social media marketing courses before I stumbled upon Wealthy Affiliate.

When I finally discovered this opportunity, it changed my life.

I no longer have to struggle to earn an online, supplemental income and you shouldn’t either.

At first, I saw Wealthy Affiliate as an opportunity to make a few bucks doing what I enjoyed, helping others gather knowledge. After one year, I have changed my mind completely. Here is my updated review:

Wealthy Affiliate in 2018

The internet is an ever-changing environment. Only about 50% of the world currently has internet access and that statistic includes those who have minimal E and 3G networks. Imagine the opportunity if even 75% of the world had a functioning 4G LTE Network. If ever you doubted the capabilities of the online marketplace, 2018 is the year you leave those doubts behind.

There are countless ways to fire up your own website. I have written about quite a few of them in some of my articles over the last year. However, what if I told you that there was one package that included everything you need to start making anywhere from $500-$50,000 per month online?

The good news is that this one stop shop actually exists.

The better news? It’s free.

Part 1: Comprehensive Online University

I want to first discuss the pillars of Wealthy Affiliate and what this platform has to offer.

The first, and probably the most important piece of your newfound Wealthy Affiliate membership will be the comprehensive online university that Wealthy Affiliate offers.

Wealthy Affiliate’s Certification Courses (shown below) can teach you everything you need to know about building a successful online business.

It doesn’t matter if that business stems from affiliate marketing, niche marketing, advertisement, or brick and mortar sales directly fueled by your online presence.

Wealthy Affiliate supplies the knowledge you need to take on any online endeavor utilizing Kyle and Carson’s successful strategies.

Each course then contains individual broken out lessons focusing on one key topic that will help you develop your website into a source of income in as little as a couple weeks.

This coursework is unlike any other I’ve experienced. As I sat through many hours of video courses explaining to me social media and web marketing I quickly realized that the people behind the videos were only in it for the revenue they were creating through people like you and I, knowledge seekers.

Their lackluster efforts are what made Wealthy Affiliate stand out to me. The passion that Kyle, Carson, and the rest of the Wealthy Affiliate community exude is infectious. There is no education system online that can motivate in the same manner.

This brings me to the second most important piece of the Wealthy Affiliate platform.

Part 2: Motivational and Helpful Community

As I mentioned previously, Wealthy Affiliate has a boisterous community of people who started in the same position as you and I. They have gone through the countless hours of Wealthy Affiliate coursework and have managed to build successful websites of their own.


These people dedicate their time and resources to helping others within the community reach their goals as well.
You will never have a question go unanswered, as these questions become top priority waiting for someone to reach out. The Live Chat section of the platform is active 24/7 and there are always helpful individuals willing and able to answer your questions.

If you become knowledgeable in a subject and you choose to help others in need, you can easily create your own content through blogs and trainings and even earn yourself ambassador status.

I have yet to find a better community online via social media or paid subscription that offers even a similar level of support that Wealthy Affiliate offers you for free.

Now that you have all the knowledge you need to build a site at your fingertips, and a supportive community behind you, where will you host this new site of yours?

Part 3: Unmatched Web Hosting

Wealthy Affiliate hosts all of my unique domains. When you first sign up under a free account, they offer hosting through their platform allowing any SiteRubix domain name to be hosted for free.

This allows you to generate your own unique SiteRubix domain until you are generating a consistent revenue. You can then upgrade to their premium membership option and host up to 25 unique domains that you have chosen. This drops the .siterubix portion of your domain name and allows you to have a more professional, established looking website.

Website hosting is not strictly about the availability of domain names. Wealthy Affiliate offers multiple site tools that aid you along the path to success.

Wealthy Affiliate site speeds are in the top 1% of web page response times.

This is important because in order to see your website ranking at the top of the Google Search page you must have a quick website that is unfazed by large traffic volume. Wealthy Affiliate has this covered.

This platform also covers making your site secure for those browsing the internet. This allows you to be considered a safe zone by search engines and helps you rank better and in turn gain more site visits.

In addition to lightning fast site speed and top notch security, Wealthy Affiliate allows you to enable SEO optimization packages that help Google and other search engines crawl your webpage effectively.

This makes sure that all of your pages become indexed (a concept you can learn more about here).

I know you are probably wondering what happens when you run into technical difficulties. Believe me, running an online business is not a walk in the park when modern technology gets involved.

Well, fear not. Wealthy Affiliate’s support team is one of the best I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve had sites completely ripped from before after installing critical updates both before I hosted on Wealthy Affiliate and after.

Experience before Wealthy Affiliate SiteSupport:

My site was completely erased after a critical WordPress update. All of my hard work from multiple years of content creation was swept from my site, and I had no way of restoring that information.

Luckily, I had backed up my site to my desktop two years prior. However, all the content I had generated in those two years since the backup was lost.

This was a terrible day for me.

The consequences were grave.

I was forced to rewrite as much content as I could. However, some of these pages were top ranking Google pages that generated traffic and revenue.

The result? Considerably less revenue for a minimum of 6 months while I rebuilt my site from it’s early framework. I lost thousands of dollars in a matter of minutes.

Experience after Wealthy Affiliate SiteSupport:

I installed a generic plug-in update that was corrupt. It erased all the posts that I had incorporated social sharing buttons on (a large majority of them).

At first I remembered what happened my first time that content was lost and expected to see greatly reduced revenue.

However, I immediately thought to contact SiteSupport.

SiteSupport at Wealthy Affiliate responded in a little under 3 hours stating that they had fully restored my website to its previous state before the update was installed. I lost no content, all my search engine rankings remained intact, and the result was no lost revenue.

Without Wealthy Affiliate I could have lost thousands. I am forever grateful that I did not have to experience a terrible site loss like this once again.

If you choose Wealthy Affiliate, you can also be confident that you will not have any issues when it comes to SiteSupport.

Part 4: Affiliate Commissions

The last pillar of Wealthy Affiliate would be its excellent commission structures for Affiliate referrals.

No other well established internet marketing university, community, and hosting platform offers the lucrative income generating opportunity that Wealthy Affiliate does.

In addition, if you refer 300 or more people in one year, you can join the rest of the top affiliates in the community in Las Vegas for an all expenses paid vacation and conference.

Here you will learn more creative strategies and discuss with others how you can continue to scale your affiliate marketing site.

If you want to learn more about Affiliate Marketing you can read up on how to monetize your website here.

Conclusion

You are probably wondering at this point what this Free Membership looks like, what your options are, and how you sign up and give it a try.

I encourage you to take a look at the Membership Options outlined below.

Now that you have seen what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer you, click on the banner at the bottom of the page and sign up for at least a free account.

If you love Wealthy Affiliate, or if you hate it, drop me a line in the comments at the bottom of this page and I will personally respond.

As I said before, my purpose when I started all of this last year was to help ordinary folks like you and I generate enough secondary income to allow full financial freedom at any age.

I am turning 25 soon.

I have traveled the world.

I work from wherever I please, and if I didn’t love innovating, research, and development, I would likely quit my day job.

Join me at Wealthy Affiliate and share the amazing opportunity that thousands around the world have been given. You’re next.

3 Of The Best Ways To Monetize A Website

There are so many ways out there to monetize a website these days. How can you ever figure out what the best route to take is? That’s what we need to talk about. I want to explain to you 3 of the best ways to monetize a website.

You may already have a website in place, which is awesome if that’s the case, and if not then you may want to read my article on how to properly build a successful website for free before we dive too deep here. It’s super simple to get started and once you do you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Let’s start with the basics.

Build Some Authority First

When I first broke into the internet marketing game I was under the impression that I was going to sit down at my computer, crank out some words on the page and everyone would read it, buy stuff, and I’d make a ton of money.

That, unfortunately, is not the case. I have always said, “If getting rich was easy, everyone would do it.” Since everyone is definitely not rich, I’m telling you it’s not easy.

So, when you first start your website you will not make money. That’s almost a guarantee. Well… let me rephrase. You will not make any substantial money when you first start. My first couple months I really only saw a few bucks trickle in from various sources, but not anywhere close to enough to sustain my day to day lifestyle.

With that being said, understand the importance of building your site out and creating a significant amount of content before you expect to see results. Building a website works like anything else, if you want to make money you have to put in time and effort.

If you put in the appropriate amount of time and effort you will be rewarded tenfold.

Building a website is also not a get rich quick scheme. There are many scams out there like the business model I wrote about here that will tell you the only way to make real money is by buying a product and then scamming others into buying that same product.

Doesn’t this seem a bit silly? Eventually you just go round and round and run out of people on the planet to buy your product.

Now that you understand that this will take time, I will explain the 3 major ways authority sites are making money on the internet. You probably can guess them for yourself, but if you are new to the internet marketing world then maybe you don’t know this just yet.

1. Advertisement

You see ads everywhere and you might not even know it. However, most are pretty blatant I will admit. If you clicked on a photo recently, it was probably an advertisement. If you clicked on any sponsored link, that is most definitely an advertisement. If it was the top Google search result, it was likely an ad from that site. If you have watched any videos online lately, the chances are there was an ad included in the video.

The fact of the matter is, ads are becoming more popular every day. You can’t even stream music these days without ads popping up unless you pay monthly fees. It is quite frustrating, but these sites are making money from it.

Let’s talk about how it works and a couple different avenues to get ad revenue from your website.

Google Adsense: Google Adsense is probably the most common outlet for ads on the internet. Any site you click on probably has Adsense embedded somewhere in their site. This can be in the form of banners within content or integrated in a sidebar, header, or footer.

Google Adsense may be one of the most popular ad generators due to the fact that they have the ability to collect cookies from a vast majority of users.

When Google understands what users are interested in it sets them up to better advertise and conjure conversions. Google’s algorithms understand what you want to purchase based on your searches, site visits, etc.

They say that you will research something 7 times on average before deciding to purchase. If you just so happen to see an Adsense ad on a site and this is your 7th time seeing the product, maybe a click happens.

This is how you can generate income from Adsense. Users frequent your site, and let’s face it, you know you’ve clicked on a few ads and even purchased things after clicking. This is important because every single time you click on an ad, a website is making money.

You leverage the same principles that the other authority sites do and advertisement becomes your bread and butter.

Targeted Advertising:

Not all advertising is based on cookies that are collected from a user. Sometimes you will want to create ads that revolve around what you are writing about on your website.

If you head over to incitefitness.org and check out my blog, you will see that I have some ads that are very specifically tailored to those that would be reading that blog.

This is effective because people that tend to be looking at a particular post related to a niche are more likely to purchase items or be interested in ads pertaining to that niche.

A downfall of Adsense is the fact that many people will see something they searched out of random like the Starbuck’s Unicorn Frappuccino. They may hate that drink but searched it because they wanted to justify their hatred for the product.

Immediately you will see ads through Adsense that have saved this search record. They begin to advertise fruity, sugary, coffee drinks to you and it’s somewhat annoying. Especially when you are visiting a site founded around building an online income.

If you use targeted advertising like they offer at Rakuten Network or other affiliate advertising sites you can see much more profitable results. Since I also run a health and fitness website it is important for me to advertise items and brands that my readers can believe in.

I target my advertising based on quality products or services that align with the values that I instill through the content I build on my sites. This converts more frequently than your average Adsense ad, and you tend to earn more through commissions.

This brings me to the second huge monetization technique when it comes to websites:

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is similar to advertisement but also very different. That seems counterintuitive I understand but it’s really the only way to accurately describe what is happening with affiliate marketing.

With affiliate marketing you essentially advertise a product, if someone purchases that product or you refer someone to a particular website you receive commissions from whatever they purchase. Refer to my article on how to make money affiliate marketing for more specific information.

Many sites incorporate affiliate marketing because it is slightly more profitable than advertisement (unless you are driving a very expensive, tailored advertisement campaign). Affiliate marketing actually allows you to become a salesman rather than just relying on others to sell product.

You can sell other peoples products and operate based on the commission you receive. There is a number of quality affiliate programs out there which I discuss in great detail here and here.

Perhaps one of the most lucrative setups is Amazon’s affiliate program. Although the commissions are limited, you receive commission off of anything purchased even if it is not the item you’ve linked to.

For example, my websites have seen revenue when people purchase RV Toilet Paper of all things when I am actually advertising workout gear. Since someone clicked my link I receive the commission because I funneled them into the Amazon site in the first place.

This is a very lucrative business model and a large majority of sites at least have Amazon Affiliate ID’s so that when they talk about products they can link to them and receive commission.

Even on products I truly love, I may as well include my affiliate link rather than making nothing from the sale.

The selling of products you create is the final of the three key ways to monetize your site.

3. Sell Your Own Products

There are many types of products to be sold in modern times. You can chase after the classic build your own product and sell that to those who read through your website and believe in you…or you can sell your own digital product which is what many on the internet are doing right now.

Trends are interesting, and this one is huge. You have self proclaimed millionaires and gurus that decide that they want to help everyone “get rich today for a one time investment of $3,000” and they actually convince people to fall for that. I’ve been a victim of these scam artists myself so trust me. (Haven’t blown money on them but have definitely clicked through their links and spent time listening to them).

Marketing your own skills and abilities is probably one of the least taken advantage of opportunities. If you have a skill or an understanding of something and can teach that to other people, it’s very likely that you can monetize your website through instruction.

Educating others with digital content is probably the most profitable of the three ways to monetize your site. This is because of the low overhead cost, minimal updating requirement, and the fact that once you build it you don’t have to produce more than one really.

Digital content doesn’t have the price tag that 5 million Toys R Us toys have to produce. You can create quality digital content on a very limited budget and sell it to your readers at a reasonable price.

People tend to pay large quantities to learn new skills that will help drive them towards success. If you have a unique outlook it is imperative that you share this via digital content with your readers because then you will have the opportunity to generate sales in the future with digital content.

If you are not a digital content creator yourself you can start your own clothing brand or create a physical product that you can then distribute. If you have a large traffic base initially then conversions to sales will be easy and monetization of your site will come with little to no effort just as it has with advertising and affiliate marketing.

While selling a product that you have personally created can have some heavy up front costs associated with it, you can definitely see a much more rewarding result from monetizing your own products via your websites.

If you have any questions about my monetization methods, how I generate revenue via this website and the aforementioned site incitefitness.org please drop me a comment below and let’s chat!

As always, thanks for reading.

 

 

How To Build Your Own Website For Free

Many people would like to get involved in the grand landscape of the internet. Some of you may not be happy just commenting on social media or sharing other people’s articles. Maybe you would like to share your own opinions with the world or create studies of your own to benefit the online world.

Maybe you are looking to build a website to generate a passive income. This is a very common avenue for creating wealth these days and you are probably wondering how to build your own website for free.

Well, I will explain to you just what you need in order to create your very own website from scratch. What you will read here is a general overview on website creation. At the end of the article I will offer you some free coaching sessions if you are truly interested in building a site!

First, let’s start by talking about what you need to do in order to make this dream a reality.

Understand The Key Elements Of A Website

When you are building a website there are some key elements of a site that you must understand.

A Domain- A domain is the first thing that anyone needs to start a website. You cannot create a site without first having a name for it. The domain for this website would be “incitewealth.org”. In order for people to find your site it must be registered under a domain.

Usually unique domains can cost anywhere from $10-$20 (some that are already taken can be purchased for thousands. However, this is an article on how to do it for free. There are free domains available from SiteRubix. Go ahead, get started and create your own free domain with this tool:

Now that you’ve created your own unique domain, let’s move on to the next key element of a site.

Hosting- Hosting is needed for your website so that it has somewhere to live. Essentially this is the only way to describe everything that is happening behind the scenes within your site. To build a successful back-end you usually will need an extensive knowledge of code.

The back-end of your site, simply put, is the hosting and functionality portion of your site. Essentially this is what makes links clickable, videos playable, images linkable, etc. Without a solid hosting platform your website will have no hosting power and will just be pretty much a blank page.

Luckily for you there is now a wide variety of hosting platforms out there. My personal favorite is the Wealthy Affiliate hosting platform as is has lightning fast speeds, access to hundreds of WordPress Themes and plug-ins, and even offers you round the clock SiteSupport.

Plug-Ins- Plug-ins are extremely important because they, through your hosting platform, can help users to navigate your site, and they also help you build your site in a manner that becomes user friendly. Plug-in examples are shown below.

Plug-ins also effectively help you rank in search engines through SEO optimization add-ons and offer your site security with SSL (a secure sockets layer).

If you are interested in allowing users to share your content on social media you can allow them to do so using social plug-ins that will generate this option, just like the buttons you see at the top and bottom of this post. Plug-ins are generally free when you have a good hosting platform or go through WordPress to design your site.

Pages- Pages are another key element of your site. These are fixed pages that will always be accessible by users unless you choose to hide them behind the scenes. Pages are important because they can give users an overall idea of what your site is about.

Ideally you will have an About Me or Getting Started page so that users are able to understand more about you. After all, transparency is the key to website design and people want to know who it is that they are listening to on the web. It creates a personal experience rather than just reading some text on a screen.

Pages can also be used as your categories which is another key element of your website after posts.

Posts- Posts will be your content. They will be what your reader shows up to see and usually the reason that someone comes to your website. I am focusing around a niche site here assuming that you are passionate about a particular topic and would like to share this passion. Posts are just like the one you are reading here, and are usually contained within a particular group.

Posts are usually displayed on your home page unless you are strictly marketing one product and want to push people to there. Then you would ideally create a splash page but that is another subject entirely and not really related to building a free website.

The recurring run of posts on your home page or under your different sections is called your blog roll. This is what will update every time you write a new post.

You generally want your posts to be pretty lengthy (1500-2000 words) so that you are taken seriously when founding your site. This will be a tough battle so make sure that you are only writing quality content starting out. If you plan to build a successful site you must continue writing steadily and make sure that your content stays consistently valuable to you readers.

Now on to the grouping mechanism for these posts.

Categories- Categories are important because this will allow you to group the next element under particular topics. Eventually you will probably want to make the categories your primary menu element like the one at the top of this page.

If you click on any of the links in the top menu you will be taken to a particular category where you will find multiple posts.

That brings me to another key element:

Menus- Menus are important because they are the navigation panes of your site. They allow people to get around your website seamlessly and find what they are looking for. Shown below is an example of a menu you could create if you were building a site very similar to this one.

Obviously you will have very different menus based on your niche, but the concept still remains the same.

Since you are trying to keep readers on your site for as long as possible and provide them with as much quality information as you can, having effective and seamless menus is important.

That pretty much covers the overall basics of the elements of a site. Now let’s talk about making it look good.

Building Out The Face Of Your Site

When building a free website you will realize that you already have so many theme options after selecting a quality hosting platform. This takes all the HTML and CSS coding out of the equation so that you don’t have to spend hours of your own time making things look nice.

If you do want to learn some of this there is a great set of books on HTML and CSS that can help with the basics and making small custom adjustments to your site later. These are available on Amazon for around $30 and have helped me a great deal.

After you get the framework of your site created you will want to build how it looks. This is done by installing a theme on your site that will format all of the key components listed above to look and function a particular way.

The theme selection interface looks something like this and can be found via the “themes” link on your WordPress toolbar.

The aesthetic of your site is important because people like simple. These days with hundred of ads on individual pages it is extremely hard to read anything quality without making it worse with a bad layout or design.

Since you already have hosting because you signed up for a free Wealthy Affiliate account you now can login to your site and work on the aesthetic. Keep it crisp, and simple.

Make Your Site Topical

Usually this is called finding a niche. The easiest way to do this is by choosing your interests and searching them in the Google Search Bar to see what’s popular. Below is an example of possible niches revolving around making tacos.

 

Ideally you want to create something that is dedicated to one specific subject that you are interested in. Now that you have your own domain, your topic should fit cohesively with that domain.

This is important because you don’t want your domain to be named “lasereyesurgery” and begin writing about the most competitive NFL games of the week. The focus here should be creating a topic that makes sense, and something that you can keep writing about for years to come.

Try not to be too broad when creating a topic for your site. If you create something that is just fitness, that can be anything. You need to narrow it down to maybe weightlifting form, or nutritional guides, or something along those lines.

If you want to check out my main niche site which just so happens to be dedicated to “fighting fitness fads with facts” then cruise over to incitefitness.org for an example of what I’ve built there.

Without a topic for your site you will essentially be scrambling for content and readers will not stick around when no posts are related to each other. If you showed up here expecting to learn about building a website and the next page you clicked on was based around cute cats you would probably leave the site (or not if you love cute cats).

Deciding on a topic is free, so you still have spent zero dollars and are well on your way to creating a website. Isn’t it easy?

You Don’t Have To Build a Niche Website

There are other ways to become an authority site. You can take up the e-commerce approach and sell physical items. You actually don’t even have to sell your own items. While I don’t personally run any e-commerce sites, you can get some excellent background information on e-commerce by clicking here.

You can also run gallery sites or just promote your own VLogs. More and more YouTube video creators are using their own domains and website in order to expand upon their YouTube VLogging and create an authority site strictly dedicated to their YouTube channel. If you are interested in the video side of things you can do this as well with the right hosting platform.

Hopefully this gets you started with your site. If you would like to learn more and gain access to a completely free platform that will teach you everything that you could possibly need to know, contact me directly inside Wealthy Affiliate where you can get personal coaching from me if you sign up for the premium option.

I did say you can do this for free, but there are benefits to putting out a little bit of up front investment. We can talk about those when you contact me for help here.

If you have any immediate questions about this post or just want to offer some insight to readers feel free to comment below, I always respond.

3 Key Things You Should Be Doing Now To Achieve Financial Freedom Later

You are probably wondering how to achieve financial freedom in the future. The struggle to achieve financial freedom is one that plagues households all over the world so you are not alone. The idea behind living financially free consumes many people and they ultimately spin their wheels because they have no guidance on how to set themselves up for success.

In order to help you not get distracted by all the fluff and empty promises offered by the “get rich quick” gurus out there, I have compiled my personal list of 3 key things you should be doing right now in order to achieve financial freedom later on in life. These are real life solutions, not some magic formula that will make you millions overnight.

1. Get Out Of Debt

One of the biggest problems in society today is the abundance of debt that consumes individuals. You can never achieve financial freedom, and ultimately entrepreneurial success if you do not get yourself out of debt.

If you are currently in credit card debt (one of the most common types of debt), you must dedicate your time and efforts to getting rid of this debt.

If you are in student loan debt, read my article on how I paid off my nasty student loans in a little under a year.

If you owe a mortgage or maybe have a small car loan out, that is acceptable because some debts are too large to pay in full in any short amount of time. However, make sure that you can refinance or have your rate lowered so that you can afford the most important step (step 3) that I will talk about below.

The biggest problem with people in excessive debt is that they can’t get help escaping this debt. If you do need help, I highly suggest you find a program that suits your needs.

I have found a program that I recommend that has helped thousands of people fight off debt collectors, credit card companies, and even allows people to keep their homes. In fact, many people end up getting paid out after using this service. With a 60 day risk free trial period it is more than worth it to see if you can truly make money and escape your debt at the same time.

2. Educate Yourself

Many people think that the only way to become educated these days is through rigorous schooling. This is not true at all. There are so many ways to self educate especially with the accessibility of internet resources these days.

If you are struggling to make money, find a job, or struggling with life in general…A few good reading materials and the right platforms for education can really help. I can say from experience that attending a university will teach you a ton of information in one specific field.

However, attending a university doesn’t teach you everything you need to know to make it in life. It doesn’t teach you how to be an entrepreneur when you have absolutely no money starting out. It doesn’t help you to make money online, or even to build yourself an excellent resume that will land you a job.

Self education can teach you everything from networking skills, to technical skills that you may need in the future. In addition, there are always certification courses offered online that will allow you to build yourself some credibility when applying.

The more you learn the more valuable you become. You can also use the things you’ve learned to teach other people. This is one of the fastest growing markets on the web and the creation of digital content is quickly becoming one of the best ways to make money this day and age.

If you have ever wanted to work from home, land the job of your dreams, or become financially free and see your goals become realities, then it is necessary that you learn as much as you can.

Don’t just learn from every resource out there. While learning a large quantity of information can be helpful, you want to tailor your self-education to topics that will benefit you or that really fine tune your interests and passions.

A main interest for me was online marketing so I have now built multiple successful websites just by educating myself and leveraging resources like Wealthy Affiliate and Affilorama.

3. Invest Your Earnings

One of the hardest things out there is figuring out where to invest money. With thousands of different options including real estate, online business, the stock market, private investments, or advertisement it is hard to know what will generate you more revenue in the future.

You should never be sinking your money into items that depreciate. Necessities are understandable but make sure that you are investing your earnings in things that will end up making you more money in the long run. One of the easiest things to invest is your tax return. Check out some solid suggestions on what to do with such a large lump sum.

There is also some importance to understanding how to create a variety of income streams for yourself. I’ve managed to create 7 forms of income for myself and some are definitely more profitable than others. Did you know that the average millionaire has a minimum of 5 forms of income? This seems like a lot but after you break down all the different possibilities of where to invest your money you will quickly realize that it’s not too hard to attain.

Why These 3 Things Will Lead To Financial Freedom?

It’s hard to imagine that three simple elements like this can contribute to the ultimate goal of financial freedom but they certainly can. When you remove debt from your life you are essentially removing money leeches.

Debt accumulates and perpetuates and can keep you from turning what you earn into more money. When in debt you are just paying out all the money you work hard to earn in the first place. If you want to be financially free this model is not sustainable.

When you finally pay off all of your debt you will then be able to spend the same amount of money you were spending on debt on investments instead.

The second point of self education is important because if you don’t teach yourself how to properly manage your money and adjust your life to propel yourself forward, you will not achieve financial freedom as you hope to.

By investing a large majority of earnings now you can see huge potential for earnings in the future. Making more money on the money you are currently bringing home is the only way to be truly financially free.

Eventually you may find a program or outlet that will allow you to make money from anywhere in the world or make money while you sleep. This is the ultimate goal and true luxury lifestyle.

Financial stability is not to be underestimated. This allows a legacy to be created that you are establishing the pillars for in your lifetime. Work hard now so that your children’s children will have the life that they dream of. In the end, you will likely have the life you dream of as well.

If you have any questions or comments for me, feel free to leave them below. I would love to talk about any struggles you may be having and see how I can help.

Affilorama Review: Fortune or Famine

Product: Affilorama

Category: Affiliate Marketing Community

URL: Affilorama

Pricing: Free initial sign up, option to buy extra tools. (Premium sign-up option initially $1, $67/month after that)

Rating: 4.6/5.0

What Is Affilorama?

Affilorama is one of the largest affiliate marketing communities in the world. They offer a comprehensive, all-inclusive marketing course and collaborative space for affiliate marketers to work together and they offer commission for those that choose to promote their community.

Affilorama is free and includes three main portions: an affiliate marketing quick start guide, a downloadable roadmap for your success, and over 120 video lessons that walk you through the step by step process of becoming a successful affiliate marketer online.

This platform has been featured on multiple major online business websites including Forbes, MOZ, Technorati, The Washington Times, and FORTUNE.

In addition to their overall platform Affilorama offers additional tools that allow you to manage critical components of the website creation and scaling process including SEO, PPC, Social Campaigns, and niche offerings, and more.

Who is Affilorama for? Affilorama is for anyone interested in Affiliate Marketing who wants to learn and truly wants to succeed in building an online business. They offer a free membership so you don’t have to have a steady income to get started. All that’s required is an internet connection and drive and determination to get through their lessons.

How To Sign Up For Affilorama

Signing up for Affilorama is quite simple. Just head over to their website by clicking here. That will take you to the main page and click the sign up now button.

This will pop up a sign up sheet that is super simple. Just input your name, email, and create a password and you’re rocking and rolling.

If you wanted to upgrade to premium with access to a 7 video starting guide there is a bonus. $1 Premium Sign Up for your first $30 days. In addition, Affilorama offers a 60 Day Moneyback Guarantee if you aren’t satisfied.

Key Features

  • Huge community boasting over 8,000 active members.
  • 120 Awesome Video Lessons showing you exactly how to build an online business from scratch.
  • AffiloTools- An application that Helps with SEO, PPC and Social Campaigns and can easily lead to more profitable leads and conversions.
  • AffiloJetpack- Another critical application that helps to accelerate your business through pre-selected niches, powerful keywords, and great graphics.
  • Rank Tracking Tools- Keep track of your rank in top search engines
  • Seamless integration with marketing platforms. This allows you to see your Clickbank revenues in addition to your Analytics performance.
  • Keyword performance tracking. Tracks your individual keywords and shows you where your traffic is coming from.
  • Integrated social media tools. Shows likes and social media performance for your niche site.
  • Competitor statistics. Shows if your competitors within your niche are catching up in terms of traffic.

My Personal Experience

I wanted to share my personal experiences to support what the testimonials above are saying.

Affilorama has surprisingly helped me tenfold. I have so many metrics I can use to track my performance on my websites. It honestly could not have come a better time. When I first started using Affilorama I was tracking performance in many different places.

I generally would use Analytics, jump to my affiliate program sites and track my performance in separate reports there, in addition to tracking social media on each respective social media site.

After finding Affilorama I was able to track everything in one place. This boosted productivity due to less wasted time on data analysis and tracking.

Affilorama also helped me to learn things from a different perspective than the one I get at Wealthy Affiliate. Essentially Affilorama fills in any small gaps I may have had with their wide variety of video lessons.

Their site support is another awesome feature. If you have any questions or concerns related to Affilorama their team of experts will jump right on it. They are very responsive and get back to you promptly.

I wouldn’t say that Affilorama is the key to my success, but I would say that it definitely is a product that can help anyone looking to start their own online business.

I am a firm believer in expanding to multiple platforms so using Affilorama for it’s amazing tools should be inevitable. It offers a great support system and comprehensive information that allows you to really scale your business and see success that you may not have when limiting yourself to one platform.

My success using Affilorama: In addition to Affilorama helping me tremendously with boosting my websites to the 4 figure a month range, they allow you to become an affiliate of their program as well without having to purchase any products.

I have many times stated that you should never have to purchase a product to market it. It doesn’t make sense that you would be forced to drive a BMW as a BMW salesman. While it helps if you know the car inside and out and have driven it yourself many times, you only need to be an expert on the subject and Affilorama makes it very easy to become an expert on their tools and overall platform.

Since Affilorama is so easy to market I have seen spectacular commissions come from Affilorama and intend to never stop using their services and tools. Finally, they will help you with outsourcing. After working on sites every single day turning my days into 18 hour work days, Affilorama has given me the proper instruction on outsourcing some of the day to day tasks of operating a niche site like this.

I highly encourage you to head over to the site and check out their Introduction post and free video lessons. If you aren’t convinced after that then maybe affiliate marketing is not for you and that’s okay!

Final Thoughts

I personally could not be happier with my experience with Affilorama. When they say they are the best out there I would agree that they are one of the best most certainly. Their educational resources and tools are an absolute must have for anyone looking to become a successful affiliate marketer. It is important that you diversify your options and opportunities and Affilorama has helped with this tremendously.

It is well worth the free membership to at least get started. If you don’t then purchase the additional options that Affilorama offers I would certainly be surprised. Once you begin to really dive into the community and offerings that Affilorama gives you I can say with confidence that you will not want to leave.

I think that the two major platforms Wealthy Affiliate and Affilorama are the only platforms you need in the affiliate marketing industry that will drive you to success. They supplement each other amazingly and easily push you to achieve your goals whether is is $100/month or $10,000/month it can be done with hard work, dedication, and a little help from these platforms.

Fortune or Famine

I give Affilorama FORTUNE tag. I am always ripping apart platforms here as majority of online services are complete scams these days. It is not very often that I find something legit.

When something like Affilorama comes along it is easy to write it off initially as just another affiliate site. After checking out their website and joining for myself I have to say it’s earned the Fortune tag from us over here at Incite Wealth.

Remember, never limit yourself to one form of income or one educational resource. Learn about my multiple forms of income here.

If you have any questions about Affilorama or would like to talk about your own personal experience there please, I encourage you to comment below!

How To Pay Off Student Loans In Less Than A Year

There are millions of Americans out there struggling with extreme student loan debt. Everyone is pressured into going to college these days and quite frankly, it costs a fortune. Graduates are faced with the looming payback period and don’t really understand just how much it can influence their personal finances.

I have personally paid off all of my loans, and have come up with a guide to pay off student loans in less than a year. If you want to learn how to live debt free, and do it as soon as possible, keep reading.

I managed to take care of all my loans and you can too.

The Effects Of Student Loans

Student loans can really take a toll on you if you aren’t careful. Student loan debt across the nation is, according to Mark Kantrowitz editor at FinAid, growing at a rate of $3,000 per second.

While in college a large majority of people forget about their loans completely. They see a check come in and take care of their tuition but are not conscious of the total amount of the loans that is perpetuating until they suddenly have to pay them back.

I have seen so many friends go to school for 4-5 years, take out the maximum allowable on student loans, and be stuck with $50-100k worth of debt upon graduation. This can be overwhelming depending on the average salary for your major.

Would you invest in a house that is guaranteed to be worth less immediately after you buy it? No. So why would you invest in an education paying out a ton in loans that isn’t worth it from a salary standpoint when you finish.

Most graduates these days don’t even manage to find a stable, well-paying job right after school. I know you might be thinking, what about the grace period? Well, 6 months is hardly a grace period, especially when some of those loans are still racking up interest behind the scenes.

If you really think about how much student loan debt you are in, it is probably enough for a down payment on a house, or enough to pay cash for a nice car. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a millennial, or any age and be able to actually own the place you live in?

The harsh reality is, student loan debt can actually ruin your chances at ever buying a home.

This is not because they tear down your credit, but because even $60k worth of student loans can add up to a $500-1000 payment per month depending on what you earn. In some states, this is a mortgage.

If you do use the pay as you earn option that many lenders allow, you will just be stuck paying more interest on those loans as time goes on.

Granted, refinancing options are available, but when I tried to refinance through SoFi I was given a rate that turned out to be the average of the rates I had initially had for each individual loan.

This doesn’t make sense as now I’m just consolidating multiple loans into one giant loan with the same crappy rate. Then the pay as you earn option flies right out the window.

One key concern that should be brought up when discussing potential loan consolidation options is that you are then removed from any potential forgiveness programs, or PAYE (Pay As You Earn Programs).

Although these programs might not be the most lucrative in terms of interest… there are some other benefits to them.

These programs are important because they allow you to lower your overall payment month to month and help you tackle individual loans ultimately using the methods outlined in this article without being burdened by too giant of a payment.

Any extra payment you make during this period is counted as overpayment and reduces your timeline to payoff which is the ultimate goal.

It should be noted that, sometimes these personal loans can be tied to some form of collateral. Ultimately, your 401k, home, car, whatever you use to pledge your allegiance to paying off this loan can be at risk.

Having these loans, both your traditional federal student loans and any potential consolidation or personal loan you take out can really hinder your long term movement towards generational wealth.

You’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the bad surrounding student loans, but that’s okay.

All the negative effects of student loans aside, there is a way to pay them all off and you can even do it very quickly.

I didn’t say this was going to be pretty, but if you take care of the evil veil of debt now, you will never have to worry about it again.

Steps To Pay Off Your Debt

1.Pay while in school. This one is the hardest for people, and you are likely taking out loans to afford school in the first place. However, if you have excess after your loans get paid out, or you make enough working part time that you can pay towards your loans.

Do it now! The future you will thank you. I made the mistake of not doing this. While I managed to pay off my loans in less than one year it was much more painful because I didn’t pay towards them while still in school.

2.Live below your means. You will likely have just graduated and see a huge pay increase from working down the street at the local deli for minimum wage. This doesn’t mean you can forget about your loan payments coming down the line.

Don’t inflate your lifestyle. Live in the same place, drive the same car, and eat like you are a broke college student for just a while longer. Don’t plan the expensive trip out of the country to go backpacking and gallivanting all over. You can do that AFTER you pay off your debts. Oh and quit buying clothes you don’t need.

In addition, stop hitting the bar every single weekend. If you step back and tally up how much you spend on alcohol each weekend, you will be horrified. This is the first thing I did and I cut my drinking to almost zero.

3.Create a plan. You need to know exactly what the maximum amount of money you can afford to pay on your loans per month is. I quadrupled my minimum payment on my $65k debt and paid directly to the principle balance with any excess.

I lived in an apartment well below my means with roommates for my first year. This allowed me to spend whatever I could actually afford for rent on  my loans.

However, I couldn’t do this without a plan. I had a strict budget that I had worked out, and I used multiple apps to keep track of my minimum expenditures. Mint and HelloWallet are both solid choices to download for budgeting.

4.Pay off the largest interest loan first. This has become commonly referred to as the Avalanche Method. As you begin to pay down loans interest can still stack up very quickly on any larger loans you have. If you get rid of these larger, high interest loans right off the bat, the accruals from the smaller, low interest loans will not cause you to drown.

Once you pay off the highest interest loan, go to the next highest and pay that off, but still pay the total amount you designated in your planning session above. To clarify, still pay the minimum on every single loan, just pay the excess to the principle balance on the highest interest loans.

5.Lump sums go to loans. This one is probably the hardest to stick to. I came into decent amounts of money randomly in returned security deposits that I had essentially forgotten about, large tax returns, and small bonuses at work.

Any time you receive a lump sum like this that you were not expecting, put it directly towards your debt. This money was not necessary, and usually you wouldn’t have thought twice if you didn’t have it. Pretend it never happened and knock down some debt with it.

I took my $12,000 tax return and applied it straight to multiple loans. It paid off 3/11 loans right then and there. Christmas bonus, same thing, paid off loans. Keep doing this and you’ll be shocked at the impact it will make on repayment.

6.Stick to it. One of the biggest problems with aggressively attempting to pay down your student loans is the fact that it doesn’t feel good. Sometimes you have to do things that don’t feel good in order to see the reward later. The light at the end of the tunnel is there let me tell you. You just have to keep moving towards it.

If you stop paying on your loans or drop back to the minimum you will quickly realize that the interest will once again catch up with you. There are many spreadsheets out there that can actually help you knock out these loans using my above method with little to no Excel experience.

Final Thoughts…

I have knocked out my own student loan debt and I am now saving to pay cash for a home using the same method. The fact of the matter is, if you are willing to do this for just one year in order to pay off your debt, why not stay hard at it for 2-3 in order to better setup your life for the future.

It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur, work a full time job, and focus on paying off all your debts. But let me tell you, it can be done and you will be a much happier person with much less stress because of it.

If you are stuck in limbo between jobs, this is the best time to pursue an online marketing career to supplement your future income. My personal favorite route to success is Wealthy Affiliate.