What is Prosperity? Definition, Meaning, and How to Attract Money

Do you want to be prosperous and gain prosperity?

You’ve seen others being prosperous and living comfortably, even luxuriously, and envied them.

You’ve heard about the ever-expanding gap between the haves and have-nots. In which category are you?

Poverty is real and the US Poverty Statistics released by the US Census Bureau in September 2020 shows it. Here are some population categories with the percentage of those in poverty:

• Adults not working – 26%
• Single moms – 22%
• Black Americans – 19%
• Hispanic Americans – 16%
• All children – 14%
• Single dads – 11%

Even among working Americans there are those living in poverty. Meaning, having a job doesn’t guarantee avoiding poverty and living in prosperity.

Maybe you’re not among these but you want a better life than the one you’re currently living.

If you’ve listened to motivational speakers, you know that you can become prosperous. They motivated you to believe in yourself, think beyond your circumstances and move towards your goals.

But challenges and self-defeating mindsets still hold you back.

Why is becoming successful and prosperous such a difficult thing?

If this describes your situation and you’re frustrated at how difficult it is to just achieve your financial goals, then read on.

We’ll tell you why making progress is not automatic, what you need to do and how to stay on course. More importantly, since the times have really changed, we’ll share with you five future-proof ideas you can implement and be on your way to prosperity.

The sky is truly the limit.

Let’s get started.

What is Prosperity?

What exactly does it mean to be prosperous?

Let’s start with a dictionary definition of the word:

The condition of being successful or thriving, especially economic well-being. The state of being successful usually by making a lot of money.
By Merriam-Webster Dictionary

A situation in which people are successful and have a lot of money.
By Cambridge Dictionary

Whereas the dictionaries are correct in connecting prosperity to money, prosperity is actually more than money alone. All the same, money is indeed necessary to sustain other aspects of prosperity.

For instance, consider health. Can you be prosperous if your health is failing?

At the same time, prosperity may mean different things to different people. For example, there are people who would rather create a life that gives them time for family without the need to constantly increase wealth—as long as they can guarantee having what they believe is enough.

For such people, they might make money then buy land for farming so that they can have fresh organic foods from the farm which they work in as a family.

Others may want to make money, invest it so that they can travel the world as their investments make more money to support their lifestyle.

Whichever way, it starts with you making money.

What You Need to Do to Make Money

So, to be prosperous, you must have money. This is where things start getting tricky because making money isn’t easy.

Do you know why? Primarily because you need a change of mindset.

To make money and sustain it, you simply need to change your thinking about money, making money and spending money.

Here’s your financial 101 lesson in summary form:

• You need money for all the basic needs (food, housing, clothing) and other extras for a comfortable life (car, health insurance, vacation etc.)
• Always make money (what you have today won’t be enough for tomorrow)
• Do not spend more than you’re making
• Before you become wealthy, do not spend money on things you merely want; rather spend on what you need
• If you must get into debt, make sure it’s good debt (debt that adds long-term value)

If you don’t have as much money as you would like, it’s possible that you’ve been breaking most or all of the above rules of money. So how do you change that?

Change is never easy. We’re habitual beings. We form habits and stick with them. And the longer the habits stick, the harder it is to break them. But breaking unproductive habits is still possible.

Here’s how to get started and keep going:

• Acknowledge your current situation – acknowledge that the situation you’re in is not a good one and that things are only getting worse. This is the first step towards change. This is the stage of identifying the problem so you can start solving it.
• Take responsibility – whether you were born in poverty or you just experienced some bad luck, living in poverty and dying poor is a choice. You can even make it subconsciously. As long as you don’t make an effort to improve, you’re actually deciding to stay where you are.
• Decide to change – come to terms with how negatively the situation is affecting you. Since you know that things can get better, make a conscious decision to work towards improving. Set small manageable goals because a journey of a thousand miles indeed starts with one step.
• Come up with good habits – for every bad habit you want to drop, come up with one you want to embrace. Be honest with yourself and list all the bad habits you know prevent you from becoming better. Be specific with both the bad and good habit so you know what exactly you’re dropping and picking.
• Come up with ways of making money – the changes you’re making are supposed to help you make money. Keep this in mind and start thinking of how to make money. This will help you stay focused because it reminds you the reason for the effort you’re putting in.

With a change in mindset and having decided to improve your life, it’s time to make money.

Let’s discuss this.

How to Attract Money in Your Life

Making money requires some work. It also requires taking some risks and developing the strength to keep going despite any challenges that show up.

Are you ready for this?

Here is how you can turn your life around.

Step 1: Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset

1. If you take a careful look at the richest people in the world, you’ll notice that they are entrepreneurs.
2. This should tell you something: that the way to become prosperous is through entrepreneurship. Take for instance those in the Forbes list of billionaires. They’re all doing some form of business.
3. Business owners are the most prosperous people in the world. And to be like them, you have to start thinking the way they do.
4. How do they do things? How do their businesses run? Most importantly, how can you start a business and grow it to become big and highly-profitable?

Everyone who starts a business is an entrepreneur. But not all entrepreneurs get to enjoy the kind of success that brings about prosperity.

Whereas starting a business is itself a huge achievement, scaling it and sustaining the growth is what matters most.

To succeed in this, you have to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

Here are some things you need to do.

Think Like a Successful Entrepreneur

To be successful, you need to solve the problems which people need solved. These problems are your prospects’ pain points.

It’s likely that someone out there is already trying to solve the problem in one way or another. For that reason, it’s important that you look at the solutions which are already available in the market, then benchmark your proposed solution against them.

The solution you come up with needs to be different. It should stand out from any other and provide enough relief to customers that they gladly pay for it and spread the word.

How do you do that?

You have to start by thinking differently. Entrepreneurs don’t think like the average consumer. And the insanely-successful entrepreneur doesn’t even think like the average business owner.

Truly successful entrepreneurs challenge conventional wisdom. They break the rules of normal thinking and come up with solutions which at first might even seem bound to fail.

These are the kind of solutions which earn them tags like “crazy” and cause the established business owners to write them off because they’re trying something never tried before.

But unknown to those who are held back by the limiting rules they create for themselves, unconventional thinking is what breeds inventions and innovations.

Inventions and innovations are what turn the gears of growth and success in a business.

Invention: something new that has never existed before. Inventions are often the result of completely new ideas conceived in the mind which are then studied, researched, experimented and proven to work.

Innovation: unique improvement of something already existing. Innovations also go through research but more importantly, they are economically viable. Inventions are not always economically viable.

Consider the success enjoyed by Tesla, Inc. Elon Musk is the brain behind the brand and he took the electric car industry by surprise.

While the established car manufacturers argued that electric cars were for the future, Musk went all out electric. Today, his company is the biggest manufacturer and seller of electric vehicles.

Definitely thinking and seeing things differently, his company spends big on research and development. This keeps Tesla ahead of the competition when it comes to innovation.

And in case you want proof that innovation is key to business success, check out Tesla’s revenue growth from 2008 to 2019.

Right now, the likes of Ford and GM are still holding on to diesel. They still have a market but who knows for how long they’ll have it?

The market is changing and will always change. To succeed, you need to get used to thinking differently.

Know what’s going on in your industry and those related to it, understand your customer's or prospects’ needs, and come up with a solution that takes your competitors by surprise.

Build Confidence

The life of top entrepreneurs is full of challenges and rejection. They try different things and they get laughed at. This is especially so at the beginning before anyone sees their success and begins respecting them.

They’re told off and sometimes have to work alone because no-one believes in their unconventional ideas. But when those ideas come to fruition, everyone wants to be associated with them—even if just on social media.

You might listen to their stories and commend them for being strong and weathering the storms that came their way. But do you know what’s needed for that strength?

You need a lot of confidence and grit to succeed against the many challenges and obstacles on your entrepreneurial journey.

Do you believe in yourself and your inborn abilities? Do you believe in your acquired abilities?

There is no substitute to building confidence in yourself. And since you’ll have to work with others to achieve your dreams, lacking confidence will easily show and few people will want to spend (read waste) their time working with you when you don’t even believe your ideas can succeed.

Do you really believe you have what it takes to solve the problem? If yes, then get started and build some resilience. Determine that you won’t be stopped by anyone or anything.

If you’re not very sure of your abilities but somewhere within you you know that you can do it, then here’s what you should start with:

• Be proud of your in-born abilities – everyone has some in-born abilities. Acknowledging and valuing these will give you a confidence boost. You don’t have to have all abilities. Start from what you have, learn others and hire those with the abilities you don’t need to learn.
• Improve your skill set and expertise – it’s easy to be confident when operating in your area of expertise. You should therefore learn more skills related to your business, update yourself on relevant news and network with other experts in your field.
• Get out of your comfort zone – learn how to exude confidence and practise doing what makes you uncomfortable. Try some low-profile public speaking e.g. before a small team. Also attend networking events and decide that you’ll meet at least two or three new people.
• Don’t be afraid to fail – failing doesn’t make you a failure; it just helps you know that there’s a better way of doing things. If your idea fails, just look at what went wrong, find an alternative, and implement it. Successful entrepreneurs go through instances of failing before succeeding.
• Keep track of your achievements – celebrate your achievements by updating your bio, company profile, and sharing success with friends and family. You can even buy yourself a gift and keep it in your office or at home, somewhere you’ll easily see it and remember your achievement. Use this as inspiration that success is possible and within reach.

Develop a Growth Mindset

After launching your startup, it’s easy to get excited when you make your first sale and see consistent revenue growth for 6 months. But what happens when things start slowing down and your business seems to head to a halt?

If up to 33% of startups fail within two years, you should ask yourself why.

If this is the story of some entrepreneurs, then take time to learn how to avoid a similar fate.

Although there are many reasons why a business can go down, one common reason is the inability or unwillingness to change. The market changes but the business sticks to what it does.

The business owner believes that somehow, the change won’t affect his business.

What will you do when customers reduce their spending? When they’re no longer responding to your marketing messages? When the customer experience team starts reporting customer complaints? When customers ask for a variation of your product?

History is full of examples of businesses that never adapted or took too long to change in line with the market. In the end, they were pushed out of business.

The same history has examples of entrepreneurs who didn’t even wait for the market to change—they’re the ones who initiated change. Where do you stand—with those too stiff to change, those who adapt quickly or those who initiate change and create new trends?

At the very least, you should be flexible and adaptable. Be willing to change when you notice the market shifting. Stay up to date with industry news and develop a growth mentality.

Be open to suggestions and consider them without thinking that your own ideas are the best.

Improve Decision Making

One ingredient of success is the ability to make the right decisions as fast as you’re required. This is called being decisive. If you’re not decisive, you’ll either stagnate or not get started in the first place.

In most cases, indecision is sponsored and fueled by fear.

When fear gets some room in your mind and starts calling the shots, you won’t move. Even if you plan everything and you’re sure you’ve taken care of everything you can, the fear of the unknown will hold you back.

Wherever you have indecision, you’ll also have inaction.

How do you develop decisiveness and avoid living with a dream that was supposed to be realized but never was?

Here are some tips:

• Learn how to be decisive – you can learn this through online materials, reading an entrepreneurship book on the subject or working with a mentor. You’ll be learning from someone who has experience, thus able to guide you on the journey to decisiveness
• Practice quick decision making – practice making personal decisions more quickly than before. Doing this at a personal level ensures that the risks are minimal. You’ll have some fun seeing yourself make decisions quickly and get encouraged to implement the same in other areas
• Get sporty – did you know that playing games can improve decision making? This is an extra benefit to growing muscles. Playing most games requires making quick decisions and when you get used to such situations, making decisions even in the office becomes easier.
• Reject perfectionism – some people think that being perfect is a good thing—maybe you do too, but it’s not. Drop the idea that practicing will make you perfect and settle on being good. This is not being mediocre but being realistic. Furthermore, aiming at being perfect while struggling with decisiveness will only lead to frustrations.
• Understand that indecision is risky – as you focus on making the best decision, you risk not making one at all. Indecision is actually more dangerous than making a wrong decision. Indecision stops you from moving; making the wrong decision helps you learn.

Develop Leadership Skills

Although when starting your business you’ll most likely be alone, you’ll get to a point where you have to build a team. These are the people who will handle the various aspects of the work needed to realize your vision.

How do you ensure that everyone works together amicably and towards the same vision?

There are two concepts of achieving results in a work environment that many mistakenly use interchangeably. This is management and leadership.

Leadership and management point to different ways of doing things. In fact, leadership and management even lead to different results.

Leadership is mainly concerned with the bigger picture and is therefore a higher responsibility than management.

To be a good leader, consider doing the below:

• Taking initiative – as a leader, you need to be able to do what needs to be done and not wait for things to get out of hand then start looking for solutions. If there’s a challenge in the work being done, make a decision and take the appropriate action to deal with the issue.
• Be a good listener – successful leadership requires good communication. This is mostly about how you say what you have to say. You’ll be good at this if you listen to the other person so as to know how to say what you have in mind without causing conflicts.
• Motivate your team – it’s important to recognize the effort your team puts in when working towards achieving your vision. Appreciate them and show them how to improve, both personally and for the team.
• Resolve conflicts – people will never work together without conflicts. Disagreements are normal although they need to be quickly resolved. All the same, ensure you do it not just quickly but also with respect to others’ points of view.
• Practice discipline – successful teams practice discipline and team members learn from those above them. Set the right example for your team by being a good time manager, upholding high work quality and being above board in your general conduct

Step 2: Learn Some High-Income Skills

• To make money, you need to be able to do something that earns you money. This comes down to skills.
• In this day and age, skills are what make the difference and you can learn them from anywhere. You don’t have to enroll for a course at the university to learn new skills. As long as you have a computer or suitable mobile device and an internet connection, you can learn the skills you need from anywhere in the world.
• Some skills which were common a few years ago are no longer in demand. On the other hand, those which were too technical, being practised only by a few, are now the norm.
• In today’s digital age, the highest-paying skills are those connected with technology. Some high-income skills are however not so much about technology as they are about people—customers.
• Let’s take a look at 5 top skills through which you can earn a good income and change your lifestyle.

Software and Web Development

Technology is enabled by software platforms and programs and these are developed by skilled and talented people.

It’s important to realize that technology is what runs today’s world. As such, if you want to move forward, then you need to know how to use technology.

The use of technology is itself a challenge for many. If you can develop a software solution that’s simple to use, efficient and yet very effective in solving a problem, you can be sure of making money.

Web development is also a huge opportunity market. Not only are we living with technology, we’re also becoming more interconnected through the internet.

This means that businesses need to have a presence on the internet. The basics of this is a website and a blog. But these are not enough.

Some businesses want to have their entire systems running on the internet and so they need someone skilled enough to deliver on such projects.

With the 2019 average household income being $68,703, becoming a software or web developer will make you way better off.

Copywriting

Copywriting is a very unique field in the marketing world. It may seem like a small thing but ask marketers and they’ll tell you how big a difference it makes.

For businesses to turn leads into paying customers, they need copywriters. These are people skilled in writing text that convinces people to take the action businesses want taken.

Businesses need people to take different kinds of action. Some want people to click on their advertisements, others want people to subscribe to their email lists while others simply want people to buy what they’re selling.

Convincing people to do something isn’t easy.

Take for instance the typical behavior of many visitors to a company’s website. They might see the “Buy Now” message and still not buy, despite acknowledging that the product looks good. They might even share the social media post but not buy.

How then will the company make money and grow? This is where copywriters come in.

Copywriters make very good money. In most cases, they’re paid a flat fee which is agreed upon before they write the copy.

There are however some instances where apart from this flat fee, they also earn a commission from the net sales produced by their copy.

Consider copywriting salaries in the US. While the average employed copywriter earns around $58,000, some companies are willing to pay over $100,000.

To become a copywriter, you need to learn the skill of writing persuasively.

It’s a matter of choosing the kind of words which identify a customer’s pain points, explaining how the product solves this problem and then guiding them towards buying.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the biggest ways companies make money online is by building audiences through their blogs or e-commerce sites.

The general idea is that the higher the number of people visiting the site or blog, the higher the number of those who will buy.

To achieve this, the site needs to attract as many visitors as possible. The most effective way of doing this, especially for the long-term, is by ensuring the site is on page 1 of the search results on Google.

For a business to achieve such results, it needs SEO.

SEO plays a central role in determining whether a search engine like Google will show a website as part of the search results or not. It also determines what page of the search results the site will appear on.

If the site appears on the first page of the search results, the chances that many people will click the link is increased.

That means there will be more people visiting the website. This is why businesses are so keen on being on the first page of Google’s search results.

Being skilled in SEO will help you be able to make a client’s website rank higher on Google’s search results. In most cases, businesses will want to be ranked on page one for specific keywords.

Definition: Keywords are the search phrases internet users type in search engines when looking for answers to the questions they have. Using keywords properly is one of the ways of getting your blog articles on the first page of search engine results. This will show you to be an expert.

Although getting a website to the first page of search results is possible, it’s not easy. And that means that the services you’ll offer don’t come cheap.

The best way to learn SEO is through practice. Start learning by taking online courses and working for clients so as to practice what you’re learning.

Sales Funnel Building

Sales Funnels are an important part of the sales process. Very few customers will go into a store or visit a website and buy without some form of direction.

Even if they did that, businesses would still need more sales for them to remain in business and expand.

Sales Funnel: this is a marketing concept used to map out a customer’s journey from being a lead or prospect to becoming a buying customer. The funnel analogy shows how a big number of prospects will visit a store but only a small number will eventually make a purchase. A sales funnel has four stages: awareness, interest, decision and action.

The purpose of building a sales funnel is to increase conversion rates. Conversion happens when a prospect becomes a paying customer. Conversion rates are what marketers look at as it tells them whether their marketing efforts are paying off or not.

Here are the e-commerce conversion rates by industry in 2019.

To improve conversion rates and increase sales, businesses build sales funnels.

Just as selling is not automatic, neither is building an effective sales funnel. If you know how to do it, there are many online businesses which will be interested in working with you.

Cyber Security

As we utilize the internet for business and entertainment, there are those seeking to utilize it for criminal activity. For a long time, businesses have suffered from major cyber attacks. These are usually in the form of ransomware and phishing attacks.

When your systems are taken down by a virus or you’re held hostage by an attacker demanding thousands of dollars before he allows you to access your company files, you could be staring at potential losses.

But with attackers often being ahead of solution providers, there has been an increased need for businesses to take preventative action. This includes setting up advanced firewalls and actively analyzing network traffic.

These activities, and others necessary to keep the corporate network safe, require specialized skills. If you have such skills, you can expect a good pay.

Generally speaking, you need a good understanding of how these attacks happen, knowledge of the signs to look out for and to have employees trained on how to stay safe. You’ll also be responsible for developing security policies and implementing them.

You can also subscribe to newsletters from a cybersecurity provider like Sophos to stay updated. Joining cybersecurity forums like Wilders Security Forums and MalwareTips will also be beneficial.

It’s necessary to note that not all skills will work for everyone. In fact, some of the skills we’ve listed here might not be what you would prefer to get into. And that’s fine. There are opportunities beyond these skills.

A LinkedIn study reports that some of the top skills companies are looking for in 2020 include collaboration, persuasion, business analysis and affiliate marketing.

There are many skills you can learn and they’re all available online. In choosing which skill to learn, keep your personality in mind. You’ll do well to pick a skill which matches your personality type.

Such a skill will be easy to both learn and practice.

Step 3: Become a High-Paid Freelancer

One of the easiest ways to achieve prosperity is through freelancing. Although it can feel scary at first, freelancing is arguably the best way to work.

Freelancing provides the best balance between work and freedom to do the things you love. The freedom to decide when to work and when to do other things is invaluable. If you have a family and have wanted to spend more time at home, then freelancing could be your solution.

Family isn’t the only reason to get into freelancing. Maybe you just want a more peaceful life. Or want to pursue other interests on the side and the 9-5 grind doesn’t allow you to do this.

Whatever the case, freelancing is an option you can choose for working and earning a good income, and it comes with the opportunity for growth.

It’s estimated that by the year 2027, the majority of workers will be freelancers.

Remote jobs are also becoming more common. These are shifting future work towards freelancing.

Consider the below:

• 58% of non-freelancers working remotely are considering freelancing. 73% of these say that remote work has made them more productive
• 85% have seen the potential of freelancing earning them an extra income
• 86% of freelancers say that the best days are ahead for freelancing

In 2020, freelancers’ contribution to the country’s economy increased by 22%.

And that’s not all.

• 30% of freelancers quit their jobs to freelance
• Of these, 65% are earning more as freelancers than they did during employment
• Of those earning more, 57% started earning more in less than 6 months

If you want to future-proof your financial position and secure a comfortable lifestyle, freelancing is one of the easiest options to take.

How to Become a Successful Freelancer

Freelancing is a great path to follow if you’re aiming for financial freedom. The barriers to entry are low and businesses are increasingly engaging freelancers instead of employing permanent staff.

For that reason, many freelancing platforms have come up and more will probably come up in the future. The market is growing and there will definitely be a need for more diverse solutions.

Freelancing Platforms

To get started with freelancing, you’ll have to register for an account with one or several freelancing platforms.

When getting started, check out reviews of popular freelancing platforms then register in the ones which you think are the best.

Look at how they work, how easy it is to land a job, the protections offered for freelancers from fraudsters and anything else that’s a concern for you.

Head over to the community section and read through a few questions and the answers provided to learn even more.

Here are some freelancing platforms you can check out:

• Upwork – a popular freelancing platform with lots of resources to learn from
• Flexjobs – a platform that’s great for remote and work from home jobs with exclusive research on employers
• SolidGigs – platform promising the best clients who are hand-picked and delivered daily
• Fiverr – offers lots of jobs as clients with any budget are welcome to the platform
• 99designs – popular and respected platform for graphic designers
• Toptal – an exclusive platform offering top talent in software development, design, finance, product management and project management.
• Freelancer.com – freelancing platform with over 1,800 job categories

Create Your Freelancer Profile

Whereas employees have resumes, as a freelancer, you need a profile. This is what introduces you to potential clients and tells them what skills you have and what working with you is like.

The most important part of your freelancer profile is your skill set. That’s what clients are looking for. However, the best business relationships are formed and sustained through more than hard skills alone.

Take time to craft a powerful freelancer profile and allow your personality to show. This can especially be important when you’re offering a service which touches on interactions with customers like marketing.

Ensure that your profile picture is professional, put on a smile and include any previous work experience which shows your ability to deliver on the job.

How to Charge for Your Freelancer Services

You have skills and you want to make money. How much should you charge for the work you do?

This is a big question and for many freelancers, pricing their services is a big challenge. What if you price your services high and scare off potential clients? What if you sell yourself short?

Generally speaking, there are two factors which determine how much you price your services: your skill set and experience.

If you have a strong skill set and lots of experience, you can charge as high as you want and clients will troop in. If you have the skills but lack experience, you’ll have to prove yourself to a few clients before increasing your rates. In this case, you should start off at the average market price.

If you don’t have the skills or have very little of it, then you’ll have to start at the bottom. You should however realize that even at the bottom, there are freelancers who are considerably skilled. You should therefore aim at improving your skills so as to outshine the competition.

Make sure you deliver quality work and build a good relationship with your clients. Their feedback will help you rise more quickly. With each satisfied client, increase your rates gradually.

Growing Your Freelancing Business

Once your freelancing business is thriving and clients are expressing their joy in working with you, it’s time to go higher.

The positive feedback means that you’re good at your work and it’s only natural that you increase your earning potential.

Freelancing shouldn’t be static; there is indeed room for growth. Keeping with your vision of attaining real prosperity, increase your worth by becoming a consultant.

As a consultant, you can operate either alone or by forming an agency.

With an agency, you’ll form a company that offers the services you offered as a freelancer. You’ll hire a team of employees or have a network of freelancers who will be available to work on the projects you secure.

This is the entrepreneur’s path. It is serious scaling and so you should be prepared and willing to run a company.

Who is the Highest-Paid Freelancer?

A good example of a freelancer who’s basking in the glory of success is Danny Margulies, founder of Freelance To Win. He is well known for his success as a freelance copywriter and he provides inspiration and training to many freelancers.

Danny desired to do the kind of work he enjoyed and get paid an amount that excited him enough to get out of bed. On top of that, he wanted the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, controlling his own schedule.

The solution? Freelancing.

Working exclusively on Upwork, Danny managed to cross the six-figure line in his second year of freelancing. This, despite having no formal training or experience in copywriting.

Succeeding as a freelancer is very possible.

Step 4: Launch a High-End Blog

• Blogging is the not-so-new business idea that many are still researching. With over 600 million blogs and counting, blogging is indeed a popular venture.
• But that doesn’t mean that it’s too crowded to gain some ground and make money. In fact, for most people who start a blog, they do it because of the opportunity to make money.

Making money from your blog is definitely possible. There are successful bloggers making over $100,000 per month.

These are bloggers who have identified a money-making blog niche like personal finance or business. They’ve then gone ahead to consistently provide helpful advice that attracts a spending audience.

But to make serious amounts of money, you should focus on the highest-spending niche: luxury.

Targeting the luxury market means you’ll have a smaller audience size but one that has a higher spending power.

The luxury-seeking audience is one that not only has money but is also willing to spend it lavishly and is actively looking for ways to spend in luxury purchases and experiences.

This is the best audience to monetize because with them, pricing isn’t an issue—as long as you keep it high. It’s important to understand that luxury is all about exclusivity.

That means that words like “affordable” and “free,” or prices that imply affordability will send your target customers running in the opposite direction.

The luxury market consists of three main things: luxury cars, luxury experiences and luxury goods.

Here is some insight into the US luxury market in 2020:

• Revenue from luxury goods amounts to over $65 billion
• The largest segment is luxury fashion with revenue of over $24 billion
• The luxury market is expected to grow annually by 4.6% (CAGR 2020-2025)

You can choose which luxury segment to get into. What you need above all is a taste of luxury in your lifestyle and words—written or spoken.

You should also familiarize yourself with the segment you choose and know the brands and products involved.

How to Sell to Luxury Customers

Selling to high-end customers is very different from selling to average customers. In fact, it can be so different that it feels counter-intuitive.

The key to selling in the luxury market is to remember that you’re selling to an audience that demands exclusivity.

In the book The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands, authors Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien detail how building a luxury brand requires taking a completely different route from the one taken by conventional marketers.

In an article on Entrepreneur, Vincent Bastien, from his own experience with Louis Vuitton, discusses a strategy he calls the luxury strategy. He writes about this strategy and shows how it’s the most effective in marketing to a luxury clientele.

The luxury strategy is one which aims at creating the highest brand value and pricing power by using intangible elements which include heritage, craftsmanship, man-made, time and country of origin.

If you’re a keen observer of how luxury brands market their products and experiences, you’ll realize they leverage such elements.

If you want to learn how to target, reach and successfully sell to this niche market, get the book The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands.

Example of a High-End Blog

There are many examples of high-end blogs targeting the luxury market. The majority of them focus on the luxury goods market segment where products like apparel and jewelry are sold.

The luxury market is not saturated and so you can easily start your own blog and still get a share of the income. All the same, taking a different route might be better.

Take for instance Carmen Edelson, a full-time luxury travel influencer. With a love of travel and photography and wanting her children to learn firsthand about other countries and cultures, she launched Carmen’s Luxury Travel in 2013.

How does Carmen make money?

It’s definitely important that you make money blogging. For Carmen, this happens through various ways including brand ambassadorships, influencer marketing, luxury consultancy and media partnerships.

Step 5: Start Your Own Niche Online Store

Online stores are an easy business to start and flourish in. You only need a computer, an internet connection and the product you’ll be selling.

You don’t even have to be a manufacturer. You can opt to sell other people’s products like Amazon does.

Shifting from the traditional brick and mortar store to an online store has been the trend for many retailers. If you need evidence that business is going online, then use these retailers as proof.

According to forecasts by Statista, by the year 2024, the e-commerce market will have revenues worth more than $3 Trillion.

Online shopping is growing in popularity mainly because of the convenience it offers to customers. If customers can shop from the comfort of their homes and get the goods delivered, it’s a plus for them.

It’s also a win for businesses, at least those which embrace the trend fast enough. The biggest advantage comes in cost-cutting—no need for a physical store in every city—and the ability to better understand customer interests and shopping behaviors through technology.

With the barriers to entry being lowered due to the existence of e-commerce platforms, creating and managing an online shop has never been easier. You can easily start and run your own profitable e-store.

The best platform to use is Shopify.

Shopify gives you full access to the HTML and CSS of your store so you can customize your store as you like, is mobile-ready, comes with a blog, automatically adds shipping rates from carriers like UPS and FedEx and gives you so much more.

There are online stores for virtually any product imaginable. There are stores selling pretty much everything like Amazon and others specializing in niches like bodybuilding supplements.

It’s easy to decide to go the Amazon route so as to net as many customers as possible. But that may not be the best way. Because of the competition, it might take you a longer time to differentiate your store enough and start making good money.

What do you do then?

Focus on a niche market. A niche market.

You’ll go through less hit-and-miss, which translates to reduced costs and the customers you hit will be more likely to convert and become loyal.

The best niches are the ones in which the target customer has a high income and is willing to spend.

This is the combination of factors that will guarantee you a high income in the shortest time possible.

Example of a Highly Successful Niche Online Store

There are many e-commerce sites that you can get inspired by. One good example though is Leesa.

David Wolfe, the co-founder of Leesa decided to build an e-commerce site but later on realized that an e-commerce platform would be a better option.

Leesa sells luxury mattresses to a high-paying audience and sells them directly to their customers.

David opted for the Shopify Plus package because of its powerful features. In their first month, they made $800,000 from sales. In their first 12 months, they had made $30 million.

Step 6: Create and Sell Online Courses

Online courses have been increasing in popularity because of their affordability and the flexibility they provide.

More and more people are choosing online courses over traditional college education.

As a result, the online courses market is growing.

Okay, there’s a market for online courses. But how profitable is it to the individual expert like you?

Teachable, the platform we recommend for hosting your online courses, shared some numbers which might interest you.

In a span of only one month, someone made over $400,000 just selling online courses on the platform.

How did they do that?

Well, it all starts with an expertise. What are you an expert in?

To be clear, being an expert doesn’t mean having been recognized by big organizations in an industry or being mentioned in mainstream media news.

Sure, that would give you massive credibility and lots of attention—and you’ll hopefully get there.

But that should not be your working definition of being an expert.

Being an expert simply means having knowledge of something to the extent that people are willing to learn from you.

And in case you’re not sure there are people willing to learn from you, don’t worry. As long as you’re knowledgeable or skilled in an area, there’s someone out there who needs the knowledge.

Just do an internet search of the subject you’re an expert in. If there are results on the subject, it means that people want to know more about it. If you have the skills and maybe experience in the subject, those people can learn from you.

And they can pay for it.

How to Start Selling Online Courses

Selling online courses is both easy and profitable. The most important thing is knowledge and you already have that. Everything else is readily available on the internet.

Let’s look at how to go about this.

Create Your Online Course

Some years ago, creating your online course would have meant overcoming very many challenges. Many of those challenges would have something to do with money and the cost itself would probably have discouraged you.

Fortunately, those are not the days we’re living in. Technological advancements have made life so much easier.

As an expert who wants to create an online course, you just need to record yourself teaching and then publish your course on the right platform.

To plan your course well and ensure it flows logically, make use of an outline. This will increase the quality of your course and increase the chances that your material will be easy to follow, understand and remember.

This is important for the sake of delivering value and getting positive feedback from your students.

Pro Tip:

To add more value to your online course, include cheat sheets, checklists and other material which will make it easy for your students to succeed in practicing what you teach them. Also create a Facebook group accessible only to your students and check in routinely for Q&As.

Host Your Online Course

Once you’ve recorded and edited your video lessons, it’s time to publish them online. And in case you’re thinking of creating a website to host your e-course, there’s no need for that.

If you were to host your course on your own website, the costs involved would quickly become a source of stress and frustrations.

To host your e-course yourself, you would need a different kind of website. You’ll actually need to create not a normal website but an online system. This is because with a course and students taking it, what you have is actually a school.

Can you afford building the kind of system required to host an online school? If you were to do that, when would you start making money from such an investment?

There are platforms built specifically for the purpose of hosting online courses.

They have created the kind of system that enables multiple schools to run at the same time. You have the ability to check on students, see their progress and do much the same things the traditional teacher would.

The best such platform and our top recommendation is Teachable.

With Teachable, you can customize your online school, link to your website through a custom domain, integrate with third-party tools and even build teams with each member having different permissions.

Another great e-course platform is Thinkific. For a deeper discussion on different online courses platforms, what each one offers and how to choose the right fit for your needs, read our comparison of the top online courses platforms.

Market Your E-course

It’s time to create a website. As much as your course is hosted on Teachable or whichever platform you choose, you need your own website for marketing purposes. From your website, you’ll direct students to your course wherever it’s hosted.

To create a website, you first need to choose a web host. There are very many out there and choosing the best can be tricky, especially if you don’t know what to look for. That’s why we wrote a guide on how to choose the right web host.

In case you want a quick answer, then know that after considering all factors, Bluehost is the best option. Sign up with them for a WordPress website and start building an audience.

Creating your website is just the first step in marketing your course. There are at least three things you need to do to attract potential students, convince them to take the course and keep making money.

1. Run a Blog

When creating a website, make sure your website includes a blog. A blog enables you to post articles through which you show your expertise in the subject. This is important because you have to prove that you know your stuff.

With the blog, provide information that is relevant, valuable and practical. Your blog visitors need to get value from your free resources (blog articles) in order to be convinced that they’ll benefit from the extra value available through the courses you offer.

In running your blog, include SEO in your strategy. Since learning everything about SEO could take time, start by perfecting your use of keywords.

For success with keywords, use SEMrush for your keyword research.

SemRush is our SEO tool of choice. Apart from being a keyword research tool, it has over 40 advanced tools to help with all your online marketing needs.

2. Market your e-course on social media

Since your course is new on the internet, you need to go shopping for students. And the best place to do this shopping is on social media.

Now you might wonder, where do you even start?

Considering all the social media platforms which exist, some you probably don’t even use, this is a valid question.

You don’t need to make a wild guess as to which platform to focus on in your marketing efforts. All you need to do is check the demographics of those platforms to find out where your potential students are.

Wherever your target customers are, you should also be there.

It’s very likely that you’ll have to be active on at least two or three different platforms so as to have effective reach. Facebook will probably be among the ones you choose to be on.

As the biggest social media platform, chances are very high that many of your prospects are active on the platform. That makes Facebook marketing a critical part of your strategy. Go through these Facebook statistics to learn whether you’ll have to market on Facebook.

In case you’re targeting a younger audience, then you’ll have to learn how to market on Instagram.

Just work on knowing your customer well. This might require you to create a detailed customer avatar.

Once you know what kind of customers you’re looking to sell your course to, it will be easy locating them based on the demographics of the users of different social media platforms.

3. Run email marketing campaigns

Email marketing is a powerful tool which many tend to overlook in favor of social media marketing.

What they however fail to understand is that although you can have a bigger social media following, your email subscribers are more loyal and likely to convert.

For all your marketing efforts, the most important metric to measure is the Return on Investment.

Considering the low costs involved and the high open and click-through rates of emails, email marketing will give you a higher ROI compared to social media marketing.

The debate is still on regarding which one between email and social media marketing is more effective. As the debate rages though, some marketers are continuing to reap the benefits of email marketing.

To be successful with email marketing, you’ll need to use an email marketing tool like ConvertKit. ConvertKit helps you not just with emailing your subscribers but also with collecting email addresses. It helps you do this by enabling you to create landing pages.

Moreover, it’s smart enough to differentiate between your blog visitors based on their interaction with your content. This means you’ll send your subscribers relevant marketing emails, the kind that will likely convert.

To remain on top of things and remain the top expert in your field, ensure you keep learning and researching your industry. Improve your own skill set and build relationships with both clients and other teachers in your field.

Who is the Highest-Paid Publisher of Online Courses?

One of the best-known successes in the online courses circles is Rob Percival. Rob is a coding genius who moved from teaching in classes to teaching on the internet.

Starting off as a website developer and successfully working in that niche for about 7 years, he decided to teach others how to code.

His courses are highly-rated on Udemy and over 750,000 students have taken them.

He priced his original course on coding and web development at $199 and made $15,000 in the first month.

Later on, he released a course on the Swift programming language and made $200,000 in the first month.

See the potential?

As long as you’re good at what you do, you can make money by helping others become as good as you are.

Step 7: Run Paid or Free Webinars

Can you organize events, prepare programs and conduct great interviews? Then maybe you should be running webinars.

Office meetings are now being held online. Business deals are being closed online. Homes are being purchased after interacting with 360° videos online. Everything is indeed shifting to the internet.

The beauty of running online events is that they have very few costs attached and that means you can quickly get started. Many individual influencers and businesses have embraced webinars and they’re becoming a big part of doing business online.

The technology in place to help you host online events is also easy to use. No technical knowledge needed; just you, your audience and the content you want to share.

With webinars, you can make them free or charge for them. If you’re just getting started running webinars and are completely new to the business, then you’ll need to first learn how to build an audience.

From there, look up some influencers and request for some form of partnership or assistance. You can even offer to create free content for them.

Creators are always looking for content and if you show yourself as being resourceful, they will introduce you to their audience and help you grow.

Another option for growth is starting with free public speaking. Show your content to event organizers of high-end events and request for speaking opportunities. This can open up real opportunities for you in the future. Just ensure you’re delivering value to the audience.

Once you’ve made a name for yourself, it’s time to introduce the audience you’ve built to your paid webinars.

Leverage the relationships you’ve made so far and organize an event with influencers in your niche. Send out emails to your subscribers and share posters of the event on social media.

Make use of ads on social media to increase awareness. Also request your event co-hosts to advertise the event to their audiences. The more attendees you can get, the more money you can make.

Keep in mind that you’ll be sharing the spoils with your co-hosts. You have to appreciate them for their time and contribution to the success of the event.

Which Are the Best Webinar Platforms?

We’ve said that there’s technology to help you with webinars and all your online events needs. So which are the best tools for the trade?

There are actually many tools out there which you can pick from and they all come with different features.

Our top recommendation is WebinarJam.

There’s a lot to like about WebinarJam. Here are a few of their great features:

• Host a roundtable of up to 6 experts
• Interact with attendees through chats and Q&As
• Automated Session recording
• Invite attendees to make presentations
• Schedule or hold recurring series of webinars

Another option, which is actually our number 2 recommendation, is Demio. You can learn more about running a webinar by reading our best webinar platforms guide.

Who is The Highest Paid Virtual Event Host?

The best-known host of virtual events is Navid Moazzez. Apart from being a highly-successful virtual event host, he’s also a full-time lifestyle entrepreneur.

Having moved from podcasting and now focusing on online summits, Navid has a lot to show for his expertise. He has seen big growth both in his email subscribers and income levels.

In one of his summits, he managed to get over 26,000 new email subscribers. After the event, he made “All-Access Pass” sales worth $180,000. Note that this was just one event. And he didn’t stop at that.

With his online course at hand, he introduced his email subscribers to it and made, together with some affiliate earnings, an additional $700,000.

• Helpful Prosperity Affirmations For Wealth and Success
• To live a life of prosperity, you also need to change your language. You can’t be speaking self-defeating words and expect to have a victorious life.
• Your words have power. The same way you can build someone up or destroy them using your words, the same can happen depending on what you speak about yourself.
• So why not align your words with your efforts to change your life?

Here are some positive words you can practice speaking from today.

I deserve to be prosperous

You deserve a better life than the one you’re currently living. You have to believe this if you’re to make any significant effort towards realizing your dreams.

Don’t allow yourself to think that a good life is too good for you. Are others better than you? Are they more human than you?

Obviously no.

You’re just as valuable as others. If others can enjoy prosperity, so can you. And you should.

I am grateful for what I have and I'm using it to achieve prosperity

Did you know that a heart of gratitude is necessary for achieving and enjoying prosperity?

Do not constantly complain about the things which are not aligned with your dreams. The more you focus on them the worse things get because you're spending your energy on the wrong things.

Instead be grateful. Be glad that you’re endowed with the ability to make a difference in your own life and soon enough, in that of others too.

I will not be limited by a wrong mindset

Decide today to drop wrong thinking patterns. Thoughts like how impossible or difficult life is, how difficult picking up good habits is or how it’s taking you too long to experience change are thoughts you should not allow to rule your mind.

Wrong mindsets are limiting. If you allow them to run your mind they will run your life. You’ll soon start seeing the imaginations become true in your physical life.

Practice resisting those self-defeating thoughts. Any time they show up in your mind, just take them down and replace them with the right thoughts.

I will not be held back by my past

Your past should not—and does not—determine your future, unless you allow it to. No matter what you’ve gone through in your past, you should not believe that the past shows what your life is supposed to be like.

Whether you were born poor or made the wrong choices and ended up being poor, that’s about to change. You’ve made a decision to change your life and so it’s time you imagined a better life and work towards it.

If your past is to play a role in your journey towards prosperity, it should help you learn what to avoid. Learn from your past but don’t regret it. Mistakes should help you learn, not keep you down.

I will not make excuses but will rise up to achieve my goals

Now that you’ve decided you want to live a prosperous life, will you do what it takes to achieve your goal?

It’s very easy, especially when starting to implement change, for you to feel that everything is working against you. If you’re not determined, this feeling can cause you to make all sorts of excuses.

But you must rise up above the obstacles. Accept the fact that change doesn’t happen overnight and encourage yourself to pursue what you believe you can achieve.

I can learn whatever skill I need for prosperity

Making money requires skills. These are the skills you need to put to work in some entrepreneurial form to make money and grow your income.

If the lack of skills is what is holding you back, do you believe that you can learn them and achieve prosperity?

Believe in your ability to learn and practice what you’re learning. Read the free resources on the internet or take online courses to learn the high-income skills of your choice.

Find a client to work for, even if at a low pay at the beginning, and gain the experience you need to start charging more for your expertise.

Nobody and nothing can stop me from being successful

If you’ve encouraged yourself to start your journey into prosperity, you need to be on the lookout for negative voices from outside you.

Do your family members and friends believe you can become successful? If they don’t, don’t allow them to hold you back. Ignore any negative speak from them and keep pushing.

Are circumstances telling you that you can’t break through? You can. Believe it and you will break through. Keep success in mind and keep moving towards it. You’ll soon start seeing it working out.

Prosperity is my lifestyle

Prosperity is a lifestyle you have to live in. It’s a different kind of life which you should adopt. This includes seeing things differently, speaking differently and acting differently.

You cannot continue in your current lifestyle and expect any change to happen.

Drop the old and start living in the new. Don’t wait till you have lots of money to start doing things differently. Just look at how the prosperous think and talk and embrace that. Everything in your life must align to make success a reality.

I am constantly growing into prosperity

Prosperity is not a destination but a journey and you need to see it that way.

If you think that success is defined by being a billionaire, then you’ll have to wait till then to experience joy and satisfaction in your life.

That is not practical at all and it can only lead to frustration.

Understand that prosperity is marked by continued growth and constant improvements.

If you used to have only one meal per day and after increasing your income you start having two meals, that’s a form of prosperity. It’s proof that you have more abundance than you used to.

Focus on gradually improving your life and before you know it, you’ll be shifting to a different neighborhood, buying a new car and experiencing the comfort or luxury you could only dream of.

I live life on my own terms

Have you realized that this knowledge has empowered you to see new possibilities and believe in yourself more? That’s because knowledge gives you power.

You have the power to decide what your life will be like. You have the power to make decisions which align with your definition of prosperity. You have the power to decide when to work and when to do other things like visiting friends.

This is called living life on your own terms. Embrace this life and do not allow anyone or anything to rob you of it.

Ready for a Prosperous and Abundant Life?

For a long time you’ve watched and heard about people living in prosperity and desired the same. Going by your current situation, you probably thought it was a long shot which you couldn’t take.

Well, you can. And it’s not too late to go for it.

Attaining prosperity and living an abundant life start in the mind, not in the big mansion by the beach. If you can get yourself to start thinking differently, despite your current circumstances, then you’ll be on your way to living your dreams.

Are you ready for it?

Stop wishing and start acting. Learn one or two high-income skills with which you can start an online business.

Use email and social media to market and grow your startup and network with other entrepreneurs to learn from them as you also share from your experience.

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