Little Earner » Site News

Happy New Year!

Dan — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:40:16 +0000

A little bit belated I know, but I’ve been travelling the world visiting family and what not over the past month or so and now I’m finally back in the UK!

I want to make this the year that the Little Earner blog really kicks on this coming year and I hope as many of you can be a part of this as possible.

Also stay tuned for some kick ass content that will be coming your way very soon!

Best Regards,

Dan

Copyright © 2012 Little Earner. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.littleearner.co.uk so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Share Your Skills and Make Money From Home

Dan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:54:42 +0000

If you’ve got a particular skill area, whatever it may be, why don’t you share it with the World?

One of the many ways to make online is to publish a web book that provides people with an opportunity to learn something new. You can write a web book if you’ve got a particular skill area; such as cooking, puzzle-solving, art, crafts, gambling, eating, anything at all.

All you need to do is to put your skill down in writing, which is much easier to do than you think. The trick is to just start writing, forget about thinking too hard and let the words flow like a river. Your words will illuminate the path for people to follow in your footsteps, so have a little reread after you’ve written a paragraph to make sure it makes sense. This is because sometimes when you write too quickly and too intuitively you’re writing can be incomprehensible, which is obviously going to prevent it from being as useful as it otherwise could be. However, this doesn’t contradict what I said earlier, I still advocate just writing without too much pre-planning at the beginning just to help kickstart the book. You may want to start planning a short while into it however, just to make sure that it’ll make sense in the end.

If you get ideas (you usually get brainwaves just before you get to sleep or when you’re on the toilet) then jot them down quickly on a notepad, so always have one handy.

When your book is finished you can either publish it as a paper copy or you can publish it as an e-book. Self publishing an e-book is way cheaper and with the advent of devices like Amazon’s kindle and the reading apps available on most smart phones it can reach a huge number of people.

Publishing an e-book can be incredibly lucrative, so if you’ve got an idea, put pen to paper – ahem, finger to keyboard – and see what happens. And if you don’t think you’ve got any particular skills, you can always check out our Top Earner and Little Earners to start making money from home anyway!

Sincerely,

Dan Little

The Mafia and Italy: Changing a Leopard’s Spots

Dan — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:35:05 +0000

This is going to sound like a very strange analogy, but I thought I’d use it because it’s really interesting. How can the relationship between Italy and the Mafia help inspire your business strategies? Well, it shows you that positive change is possible regardless of how how overwhelmingly difficult it may seem. If one of your campaigns is not making money at the moment, sit down with a logical and clear head and try to think about how to make it work: can you tweak the variables to make it work? Can you reduce costs, change landing pages, offer a slightly different product? Negotiate a higher return?

The Italian Government’s ongoing fight with crime shows that it can often take years to even begin to make positive change. They haven’t given up, however, as is evidenced by the numerous dead officials willing to stand against the tyrrany of the organised crime bosses. Over time, they have managed to rejuvinate many former Mafia-owned properties and businesses into sometimes profitable enterprises that benefit the Italian public. Though the war is far from won, they are slowly but surely turning the detrimental impact of the Mafia into a positive impact on the community.

It will be a long time until the Italian public are free from the Mafia’s grasp, but it takes a considerably shorter length of time for you to turn around a loss-making enterprise. You can turn off campaigns, amend them and tweak them until they are successful. Oh, and there’s not the inherent risk of death that comes with battling the mafia! Just remember the courage of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two magistrates who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for justice. What they did was brave beyond measure and shows the importance of persistence, resilience and an unwavering commitment to the cause. Though the courage required in business cannot be compared to the courage shown by these two magistrates, there are similarities between the two:

You need to have courage to spend money when there is a risk. Without spending money, there is no chance to make money.
You can’t be dissuaded by loss. Everyone loses money at some point, but you need to be resilient and continue to try to overcome the loss.
You need to be committed and be prepared to have sleepless nights for your business! This doens’t mean you will have sleepless nights, but if they are required you’ll get your hands stuck in!

So, remember, keep pushing forward and you’ll see success.

Sincerely,

Dan Little

Self-Employed Woes: Illness and Your Business

Dan — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:35:20 +0000

Right, so you work on your own and you work for home. Everything’s going well, but what’s this? A headache? Oh, no, please…not the shivers too! Oh, great, and now I’ve got a blocked nose. Oh deary bugger, I’ve got the flu!

‘I’m a hardy worker, i’ll see it through!’ you think to yourself, questioning what you’ll do on the days you can’t work. Worry begins to run through your mind, gathering pace with each waking second, ‘what will I do when I’m ill? I don’t get paid when I work!’

It’s a connundrum that’s plagued the self-employed since day one: what to do when you’re ill and you feel you can’t work, but also feel that you need to?

Well, for most people, the number of days spent sick will be significantly outnumbered by the days spent working. So it’s important to put some money aside for the days when you may not be able to work.

As I learned from experience this week, it’s important that you focus on getting better first and making money second. I’ve had flu twice in the last four years: the first time I was so determined to carry on I ran myself into the ground and was out of action for about two weeks because I got the flu so bad. This time, however, I was better prepared. I bought flu medicine, throat medicine and had a supply of oranges at the ready. I tucked myself up in bed, put on rubbish tv and settled in to beat the hell out of the flu. Following from this strategy, I was all fixed in about 5 days. I was able to work, however, after the third day.

Therefore my advice to you if you get ill and you work from home is to take time out, chill and focus on getting better. You’re more likely to make mistakes if you work when you’re ill and you’re more likely to prolong the illness. If you’re well and you’re reading this, make sure you keep some emergency money aside for when you’re too ill to work.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Dan Little

Security On The Net: Concern for People who Work From Home?

Dan — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:12:42 +0000

Don’t let the issue of online security hamper your plans for success on the internet

Dan Little

Reading the news recently one can’t help but notice that there are a variety of articles available about high profile internet security breaches. These include attacks on the British security service and engineering firms, as well as multiple attacks on American and Chinese sites. Perhaps even more worrisome is that the government is well-prepared to defend against such attacks, which surely leaves little hope for those of us who aren’t.

A recent article on thisismoney.co.uk stated that cyber crime is reaching ‘a disturbing level’, with some credit card details on sale for just 70p (that’s about $1.12). If this is the case, how can a business on the internet possibly hope to protect their financial interests online?

Well, regardless of what measures you take there will always be a risk, but there is no reason why you can’t minimise this risk. Just in the same way that a land-based business will never be able to eliminate the threat of robbery, an internet business can never eliminate the threat of cyber-attack.

So, what can you do to help secure your business from cyber attacks?

Use a router or a modem with a high-quality built in firewall. Make sure that you change the admin and password details for your router as well, just to ensure that no-one can secretly disable your firewall. Your router’s instructions should provide you with details of how to do this.
What is a firewall? A firewall is an automated security system that detects unauthorised access to your computer and shuts it down before it manages to infiltrate your system. However, like any wall, it can be broken. So you should also: Install a second firewall, anti-virus and spyware detection on your computer. Use reputable products to avoid sub-standard service and make sure you update them regularly. If you have a firewall on your computer too, you make your system doubly hard to penetrate.
Use different passwords for everything, but write them down in a folder and padlock them in a safe. This means that if you forget one you can easily access your files, but that people trying to access them won’t be able to crack one password and then use it to access everything you have.
Be aware of scams: it sounds simple, but don’t reply to suspicious junk mail, never give out your bank details to anyone who just asks for them and always try and verify that people are who they say they are. IF you’re unsure, give their telephone number a ring and make sure that it is actually the company trying to reach you.

If you follow these simple guidelines you can minimise the risks posed to you and your online business. In all my years of owning an online company, I’ve followed these principles and have not been cyber-robbed. However, I don’t plan on becoming complacent any time soon, and neither should you! Nevertheless, don’t let the issue of online security hamper your plans for success on the internet.

Hope this helps.

Sincerly,

Dan Little

Revealing Secrets

Dan — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:42:29 +0000

This feels a little bit like I’m revealing my best poker hand, but I’ll do it anyway. I’m going to tell you about blogs and why they’re good little earners. There’s nothing quite like revealing your money makers to the world, is there?

All joking aside, blogs are an excellent way of generating a stable revenue stream to compliment other little earners that you may have going on. They’re a great opportunity to showcase to the world whatever it is you have to offer in a concise and informative way. The better your style of writing, the better the quality of the blog you produce.

In today’s internet-savvy world, blogs are an increasingly influential medium which can be used to promote products, ideas and services. You can make money on a blog by either a) advertising other people’s products on banners, or b) reviewing products and providing links to those products, for which you are paid on a commission basis.

One tip I’d have to give you is to try and be as honest as possible. I write reviews, but I write honestly. If I don’t think a product is any good then it doesn’t make it onto the blog. Likewise, I also like to use the blog to promote other ideas that I don’t review. Hopefully, this means that people find Little Earner genuinely useful, which is first and foremost what I intended this blog to be.

On a personal note, I started Little Earner not to make much money, but because I genuinely enjoy writing articles. The fact I make a small amount of money from the banner ads on the site is, of course, a bonus. But that’s the other benefit of a blog, it allows you to form a connection with the outside world and write about things you find interesting, particularly if your number one goal isn’t to make money, but to write entertaining and informative posts. In this sense, a blog can be more of a hobby than an earner, but it also has the potential to earn you big bucks if you promote the right products.

In short, blogs are great fun and can provide a decent income, but don’t rely on them as a sole source of income, as they are difficult nuts to crack. Having said that, if you find one that people seem to like, then get ready to experience a windfall.

Sincerely,

Dan Little

Happy Halloween!

Dan — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:37:45 +0000

May you all have a fright-tastic Halloweeen. Just don’t scare off any potential customers!

Sincerely,

Dan Little!

The Elevator Pitch

Dan — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:26:02 +0000

The Elevator Pitch: so, you’ve got an idea and you know that people will be willing to invest in it. You’ve got confidence in the product, why shouldn’t the investors? Well, the key thing here is to remember that investors don’t just need confidence in the product, they also need confidence in the person pitching the product to them. After all, the person doing the pitch is often going to be the one managing the project.

The elevator pitch is based on one simple question: can you deliver a pitch that is informative, clear and easy to understand in the same time it takes an elevator to reach the board room? (This hypothetical elevator ride lasts about 2 minutes)

I’ve found a video by Sean Wise that explains exactly what the elevator pitch is. The actual video itself isn’t fantastic (it’s a little cheesy), but the content and message it gives out is spot on.

Sean Wise explains how the vital ingredients to a successful elevator pitch. Follow his YouTube channel at: SeanyTHEbear.

Taking the Leap: ‘Should I Start My Own Business?’

Dan — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:12:35 +0000

So, you’ve got this idea, and you’re dead certain it’ll make you money. Or, your boss has just tipped you over the edge,

‘that’s it!‘ you scream to yourself, ‘I’m setting up my own business.‘

Well then, why don’t you? (Make sure you read to the very end before answering this!)

Probably for the same reason thousands of people don’t do anything: confidence and self-belief. We all too often believe the pessimists around us and rather, instead, rely on our ‘sensible’ side to tell us what to do. Why is this? It’s because of the belief popular amongst people that problems are inevitable and insurmountable. Something I was taught throughout my degree was that no matter what the problem, no matter how difficult it was, thorough research would eventually provide me with a solution to the problem. And it’s proved true so far.With this in mind, it’s worth remembering that if you want to start up your own business and you do the research, there’s NO reason why you shouldn’t be successful.

Research what your market may be, research how to do things properly (or differently) and keep accurate spreadsheets and documents and then analyse them!

So, now you’ve got the will, you’ve got the determination, but you haven’t got the money!

Again, refer to the above statement on research, and the answers will soon become apparent. Research how others made money, research different fundraising options, research different loans, hell, research anything to do with raising money. You can raise the money, whether it takes you a day or a year.

I don’t have the time to set up my own business.

Why not? If you’ve got young children, then you can set up a home business and look after them while you take of them. Key here is discipline: make them all too aware that you’re working. Yes, it will be stressful. Yes, at times it will seem impossible to carry on. But yes, it will benefit you by both building your character and giving you money.

If you don’t have young children, or you do but aren’t the sole carer, then there really aren’t very many excuses. Remember, particularly with work from home businesses, you don’t need to quit your job straight away. You can test out the feasability of working from home in the evenings and if it works then you can quit your job and work full-time from home. So, again, what’s the excuse? Yes, you may have to sacrifice some social time. Yes, you may have to be a little more tired during the day. But, in the long term, it’ll be worth it if you persevere.

A bit of pramatism:

Of course, I could sit here singing praise from the rooftops, but only you can really say whether your situation allows you to start working from home.

To help you a little more, check out the following pages and I bet you’ll start thinking about how much you CAN make:

Top Earner

Make Money Programs

I wrote the above pages to guide people through the vast expanse of terrible make money programs on the net.

Hope that helps!

Sincerely,

Dan Little!

Celebrity Chefs: What Can They Offer You by Way of Inspiration?

Dan — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:02:00 +0000

A little off topic, but herein lies a tale of value…

Sitting down to catch up one of my favourite cooking shows, I had a sudden brainwave. Well, perhaps not a brain wave, but something had piqued my interest. I was sat there seeing synergies and connections left right and centre. My favourite celebrity chefs were, in actual fact, amongst my favourite entrepreneurs. The way in which they’ve conducted their business affairs is exemplary and they are not only excellent cooks, but they are also excellent business people. Naturally, this got me thinking about Little Earner and, specifically, about how I could use the story of these chefs to help guide people towards a brighter more prosperous future.

1# Jamie Oliver

To those not familiar with British television cooks, Jamie Oliver is a very good example of great cook meets great businessman. Not only has he diversified into American television shows, but he has also set up a chain of restaurants, Jamie’s Italian, with remarkable speed, efficiency and pragmatism. With stores now around the country their popularity is obvious from the difficulty in getting a table on occasions. It’s not just the way in which he conducts his business, but it’s the way in which he involves himself with it. He proudly proclaims that he should have been Italian. If this isn’t passion for what you do, I don’t know what is. To succeed in a business you must be passionate about it: you must be prepared to do the long shifts, for the sleepless nights, to occasionally put the business before your family and yourself, to hit lows big enough to make you want to quit; love what you do and you’ll weather any storm and fight through the other side to become a successful business man.

2# Gordon Ramsey – “F@#k OFF” –

Perhaps best known for his somewhat explosive temper and profane nature, he is nonetheless a stand-up businessman. Why? He’s got a unique selling point. Well, ok, perhaps being vulgar and abrasive isn’t, sadly, too unique, but it is on live television. It’s unique in that it’s real; he’s avoided toning down his personality and nature. If anything, he may have inflated his negative attributes to make him more entertaining. Regardless, he’s found a personality that works for him and stuck with it. Businesses are much the same as people: they need a personality to really work. However, any old personality will not do, it must match your business ideals and goals. With the advent of effective social networking, creating this personality is even easier than before. Be careful, however, because what works for one business may not work for another. Go with a personality you know will make you unique and earn you a few brownie points with customers/clients. Most importantly, make sure you keep your personality the same.

Anyways, I’ve got a rather busy evening ahead of me, so i’m afraid that’s all i’ve got time for at the moment!

Cheerio,

Dan Little