Imagine taking an extended vacation and still earning money while you are away. By the time you arrive home, you have earned more money than what the vacation cost you.
How about taking yourself and your wife or husband off for a year-long trip around the world going to all of the places you have ever wanted to visit and being able to pay for it as you travel.
I’m happy to say that is no longer only available to captains of industry and the incredibly wealthy. It is now available to anyone who wants it.
The recent pandemic has opened up a whole new world to people, a world they had no idea existed.
The world of…
Digital Freedom
You may have heard it being called remote working, digital nomads, or WFH (work from home).
It may seem new to a lot of people, but digital freedom is not that recent a development. I and many others have been living a digital freedom lifestyle for over 21 years now.
I can take myself off on vacation for a month or two and not have to worry about money because I have a series of systems in place which means that I am making money no matter where I am.
I have an online business that sells ‘digital products’ and allows me to earn money at any time of the day and night wherever I am in the world.
I highly recommend that people start an online digital business of their own and I shall explain why shortly, but first, let me also make it clear that today a digital business can also provide a service.
A digital service provider provides services that are either provided entirely online or can be delivered digitally online to anyone around the world.
What I love about digital service providers is that they are not location dependant. They do not need to be in the vicinity of the companies to who they are providing a service.
Recently I have talked about becoming a writer as that is a digital business that you can take with you wherever you go in the world and you can earn money by providing written content for clients.
You don’t even need a website of your own to become a writer. As long as you have some space in the digital domain such as a user account on platforms like Upwork.com and Fiverr.com you can find work.
Writing is just one digital service provider, there are many including:
- Graphic designers.
- Software developers and covers
- Website builders.
- Social media managers.
- Voice over artists.
- Sound and audio engineers/editing.
- Proofreaders and book editing.
- Paid traffic managers.
- Accountants and CPAs.
- Virtual assistants.
- Email marketing assistants.
There are a lot of different digital service providers.
In the article 6 Ways To Fund Your Freedom Using The Written Word I talked about several ways to make money as a writer including copywriting.
Copywriting is an incredibly profitable skill because not only can you earn decent amounts charging clients to write sales material, you can write your own sales letters and emails which means that you can earn a lot more money.
Now, I’m going to let you into a little secret… if you want digital freedom – IE make money from wherever you are in the world at any time of the day and night – you really should focus on creating these two things…
- Creating A freedom skill/business.
- Creating An email list.
Let me explain both in more detail.
Creating A Freedom Skill/Business
A freedom skill and/or business is a way to make money that you can take with you anywhere in the world which requires little to no specific equipment.
A freedom skill and freedom business is not location dependent.
A ‘traditional’ freedom skill would be hairdressing or carpentry. You could go anywhere in the world and make money with those skills. You could jump on a plane and fly to the other side of the world and there would always be people needing carpentry work doing or perhaps their hair cutting.
Carpentry should earn more than hairdressing but it would require more tools and a vehicle to carry the tools and materials.
Hairdressing needs just a few pieces of equipment to offer a basic service such as a simple haircut. The scissors, brushes and combs can fit nicely into a small bag.
Both those examples require customers in and around the area where you are and they require you to go to where the work needs doing. A hairdresser could have people going to their place but a carpenter would most definitely need to go to a place of work.
A ‘digital’ freedom skill is even better because all you need is a lightweight laptop, tablet or even just a smartphone. It just depends on what digital freedom business you choose to do.
For now, I’ll stick to the example of a writer because it is one of the best examples of a digital freedom skill that you can take anywhere with you. A writer who writes eBooks, articles, emails and sales copy for other people can work from anywhere in the world and work for clients from all four corners of the world.
- They do not need to leave their home.
- They do not need clients in the immediate vicinity.
- They only need a lightweight laptop or tablet to work on.
- They are completely location free and can earn money through the digital domain.
They are also in a great position to create their own products to sell and many writers don’t even need clients as they have set themselves up with their own fully automated passive income systems which takes the money and automatically delivers the product.
If you prefer the idea of offering a digital service rather than selling digital products, then I suggest that you develop a Premium Freedom Skill such as learning how to write direct response sales copy.
The whole purpose of a digital freedom lifestyle is just that, you enjoy a lifestyle with more freedom and so by earning a premium freedom skill, you can charge more for your specific service and DO LESS work.
An Email List
I’m sure that by now you have heard of the saying:
‘The money is in the list.’
Well, it’s true; partly… the money is in the relationship with the list.
Having your own email list will become your own on-demand traffic source of customers. As such that database of clients and customers will become the most valuable digital asset you will ever own.
Growing an email list of your own allows you to ‘ask’ people to buy your services and products whenever you like without having to run loads of expensive ads to ‘cold’ prospects or perhaps ‘going down on bended knee’ and asking a well-known Super Affiliate or JV Partner to work with you.
People who join your email list are at the very least ‘warm’ to you and your products and services.
By sending regular emails, you build rapport and trust with the people on your list. Having a responsive email list is often enough to allow you to travel the world without having to ‘find work’ wherever you end up.
The email list needs to be of the right people. If you offer to write and build sales pages for people, having an email list that is made up of all and sundry is going to be no good to you.
You need people on your list who are looking to buy the exact thing you are offering.
A small list of 500 people who are looking to buy the types of products or services you are offering is always going to be better than having a list of 5,000 random people who joined to simply get a free Starbucks voucher.
To build an email list you need to offer something of value like a free special report, video or audio recording. Often a free item like this is called a ‘Lead Magnet’ because its job is to ‘magnetically attract’ new prospects to you. This ‘Lead Magnet’ needs to be related to the main service you are offering or the products that you sell.
I explain in greater detail the process of building an email list, using lead magnets, and mastering email marketing here: The Email Marketing Game Plan.
Whether you offer an online service (by the way, you don’t need to do the work yourself, you can pay others to do the work while you earn a commission for setting it all up), or simply decide to publish simple information products such as eBooks, eCourses or a membership site; having an email list is a must.
In nine out of ten cases, it is the email list that funds your freedom.
You should think of your email list as an online bank account that gives you money as and when you need it.
A bit of a cheesy cliché I know… but it’s true.
Like an ATM machine, you pop in your card (send an email), request some money (introduce a new product or service), and wait for the machine to dispense the cash (sales and orders come in).
Just remember like in the real world of banking, you can’t just make withdrawals, you also need to make deposits. This is where you regularly give back value to your email subscribers by providing them with useful, informative, entertaining snippets of information on a regular basis to help them for free. This can be done by writing informative emails, publishing useful articles and videos on your blog, and publishing additional ‘Lead Magnets’.
Publishing Your Own Digital Products
There are many different ways to make money as a digital entrepreneur. One of the most profitable and one that offers the greatest amount of freedom is publishing your own information products.
These types of products can be bought at any time of the day and night and unlike offering a service, you can upload several information products to your website, and leave them to make money for you.
Once live online… You don’t need to do anything else.
There is no dealing with unreasonable clients or trying to get work delivered by a specific deadline.
As long as you have an automated system in place and a nice steady flow of visitors to your website each month, you can simply sell digital products to fund your entire digital freedom lifestyle.
Let’s say that you need, at the bare minimum, $100 per day to fund your digital freedom, (and believe me that is an extremely low-level goal to begin with).
Imagine that you have five different eBooks on your website priced at $17 and that you sold just one copy of each eBook every day… you would generate $85 per day and not have to do anything as part of the sales process once the sale has been made.
There is no shipping and handling to deal with, it is all automated. The payment is processed and the eBooks are digitally delivered as soon as payment is complete.
Now imagine that as well as those five eBooks, you also have a training video that accompanies each eBook that is offered to the buyer at the time of purchase.
Those videos are called an ‘offer bump’ and they cost $19 to buy.
You only need one person who bought one of your books to buy one of those accompanying videos to push your daily income to over $100.
Also, as well as the eBooks and the video training ‘offer bump’ you also have a monthly training program that is offered to each person who buys one of your eBooks. That monthly membership costs $47 per month.
Everyone who joins that membership pays you $47 each and every month they stayed subscribed.
Now imagine that you have people buying your eBooks, some of them going on to buy the extra video training, and then a handful of people joining your monthly membership while you are traveling.
Obviously, you need to create – or have created – the products you sell and you will also need to publish content to the membership each month to keep people actively subscribing… But that isn’t as hard as it sounds. In fact, in my opinion, it’s extremely enjoyable as this is very similar to how I run my business.
Likewise, you can pay people to create and publish the content for you, or you can simply license pre-made content and modify it to suit your needs.
Digital Freedom is about embracing the digital world and using it to amplify your efforts.
If you have 200 people paying you $47 each month to access your membership-only content, you are earning $9,400… So why not pay someone $500 -$1,000 to help create and publish that content for you?
Not only do you now have the freedom to enjoy your days and do as you please, but you are also earning $8,400 a month for the privilege… and that is not including any of the eBook and video sales. 🙂
An information publishing business selling digital products like eBooks, video training, and membership programs is the Ultimate Digital Freedom Business. It offers freedom like no other business.
Want to know how to run your own profitable information publishing business? Click the link below and request a free copy of my best-selling book Six Figures A Year In Info Publishing.
SixFiguresAYear.com
Unlike the examples given above this is a real physical book. I am happy to give you a free copy if you’re happy to contribute $6.95 towards the cost of my fulfillment team posting this to you (wherever you live in the world).
Why is this a physical book and not just a digital download? The reason is that I want for you to ACTUALLY READ THIS BOOK (many times) and not just to download it and instantly file it away, never to be seen again.
Six Figures A Year contains information that you will find useful for a very long time, So I thought it was worth every penny to have it traditionally printed for you and have my team on stand-by to send it to you.
Click here now to request your free copy and we will ship it to your home – wherever you live.
