Growthlab ultimate-guide-to-working-from-home

The Ultimate Guide to
Working from Home

The Ultimate Guide to Working from Home -
Ditch the Cubicle and Create
the Career and Lifestyle
You Want
Imagine this scenario 6 months from now:
You stroll into your boss’s office one morning and hand over your
two weeks’ notice.
But he says, “Wait, we’ll bump your salary 20% AND give you a
corner office.”
“Sorry, I can’t do it,” you tell him.
“25% more?”
Nope.
“I’m flattered by the offer, but I’m going to have to pass,” you say.
And of course, you found a new job that offers benefits that you
can’t put a price on.
The freedom from commutes and evening runs to the dry
cleaner. The choice to live wherever you want. And the flexibility
to control your own hours.
You’re going to be working from home.
This isn’t something that “other people” do. Forbes reported that
one in five Americans now works from home. And that number is
expected to rise in the next few years.

Who are these lucky folks who get to work from home?
They’re the new class of professionals who define success as
doing what you want, from wherever you want, and on your own
terms.
But it’s not all about lifestyle. It can be a great move for everyone

involved.
According to Stanford Business School, people who work from
home are not only happier, they’re more productive, too.
I’ve put together this Ultimate Guide to Working from Home to
explore all the options you have, and what it takes to pull them
off.
I’ll even show you the technology, tools, and skills you’ll need so
that nobody will even realize you’ve left the building.
Who Am I?
I’m Ramit Sethi, the New
York Times best-selling
author and founder of
GrowthLab and I Will Teach
You To Be Rich — a
business that I grew from a
dorm-room blog into a
multimillion-dollar online
business with over 30,000
paying customers around
the world.
One of my personal philosophies has always been flexibility. I
love going to the gym in the middle of the day when it’s not
crowded. And I love meeting up with friends for a long lunch
whenever they’re in New York.
So when I started to hire employees, I wanted to give them
the flexibility to work from home, on their own schedule, from
wherever they are in the world.

In fact, one of my employees wanted to move to Paris, and we
supported it 100%.
Not setting up a central command center and letting my
employees work from home has been one of the best decisions
I’ve made.
Not only is everyone happier and more productive, we also get
to recruit people who are the best at what they do since we’re
not limited to geography.
I’m thrilled to share everything with you today.
Here’s what we’re covering in this free guide:
Part 2: The Skills to
Work from Home
No Matter What
Field You’re In
Whether you’re a web developer or graphic designer, you’ll
need to master certain skills to successfully work from home. I’ll
show you how to be more productive, meet tight deadlines, and
manage emails.
Take me to Part 2

Part 3: How to
Communicate
Effectively so
Nobody Will Realize
You’re Gone
Communication is a must when you’re not in an office anymore.
But that doesn’t mean you have to be chained to your email
inbox or spend countless hours on the phone. In this part, I’ll
show you how IWT works with dozens of employees in 23 states
and 6 different countries.
Take me to Part 3
Part 4: Make
“Working from Home”
One of Your
Company’s Benefits
If you’re employed full-time, working from home might be more
of a possibility than you think. I’ll teach you how to test the
waters with your boss. And I’ll also go through 10 common work-
from-home jobs and how to get the highest paying ones.
Take me to Part 4

Part 5: Starting a
Business Isn’t as
Complicated as it
Seems
Many people start their own business with the dream of
becoming their own boss and calling the shots from a home
office. But they sabotage their chances of success from the start.
Let me show you that starting a business isn’t as complicated as
some make it out to be.
Take me to Part 5
Part 6: Build a
Website that Pays
You in Your Sleep
Passive income — we all want it. But what does it take to pull
it off? Contrary to what gurus say, there’s more to it than just
slapping together an ebook and putting it up for sale online. In
this section, I talk about 6 different business models to build a
website that pays you in your sleep.
Take me to Part 6

Part 7: The Next
Steps to Living a Rich
Life
Everything I cover in this guide just skims the surface of working
from home. I have even more free material on finding coveted
remote jobs, freelancing for enviable rates, and starting an online
business with the skills you already have.
Take me to Part 7

PART 2
The skills to work from
home no matter what field
you’re in
Anyone who ever tells people they work from home will often
hear, “Wow! I could never do that.” And it’s true, it takes
discipline to get up, log in to your computer, and work when
nobody is standing over your shoulder and directing you.
Distractions attempt to grab you from every direction.
The La-Z-Boy recliner you thought would be awesome to
type your weekly reports from becomes a sink hole for your
productivity.
And once word gets out that you’re home all the time, friends
and family start to ask if you “could do them a favor in the
middle of the day.”
Which is why, if you want to successfully work from home, you

need to declare war on distractions.
In this section, I want to talk about the 4 skills you need to
consistently produce great work no matter what industry you’re
in.
Skill #1: Master working in short
bursts
Working from home means that nobody is looking over your
shoulder anymore. You don’t have to pull up a random Excel
spreadsheet whenever someone walks by to make it look like
you’re working and not checking Facebook.
As long as you get your work done, you can free up time to tend
to other things. Heck, my team can walk their dogs and pick
their kids up from school without asking anyone for permission.
Because I know they’re on top of their work.
The best way to be productive is to work in short sprints — not
long, drawn-out marathon sessions.
My friend Chris Yeh is a Harvard MBA. He works a demanding
full-time job, teaches at Stanford, writes for various publications,
advises startups, and still manages to make time for his family.
Did you get tired just from reading that? Watch and learn how he
pulls it off with the Pomodoro Technique.

Skill #2: Stick to project deadlines
and due dates
According to my friend and bestselling author Tim Ferriss:
“Most people fail at new year resolutions because there is no
consequence. If you don’t go to work, you’ll lose your job. But if
you don’t stick to your diet, there’s no consequence — other than
staying fat.”
The solution to finish everything you start?
Hold yourself accountable.
Tim’s favorite way of doing this is by using a website called
stickK.

Once you sign up, you can make a commitment contract: “I will
nail the project deadline.” Then, if you don’t, stickK will take your
money and donate it to a charity you despise.
You can also invite friends or coworkers to referee your progress
and make things more fun.
This is a great way to stay on track for work projects when the
living room recliner is calling your name for nap time.
Skill #3: Make small changes for
massive results
It’s much harder to shut down for the day when your “office” is
where you live. There’s no night-time cleaning crew that comes
to empty out the trash to signal that you’ve been burning the
midnight oil.
You have to decide when to call it quits for the day. Because
sooner or later, trying to jam in another task at the end of the
Go to StickK.com

day can rob you of your sanity.
Which is why it’s important to make stepping away from your
desk a regular habit. Whether it’s a short walk, a trip to the gym,
or taking an afternoon yoga class, exercise can help keep your
mind sharp when you work from home. It also helps you strike
the perfect work-life balance.
View full size
Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit, built a healthy

eating habit while working for The New York Times. His approach
was unconventional in that it started with chocolate.
Yes, you read that correctly. Chocolate triggers reward centers
in your brain and makes you want to do things you normally
procrastinate on.
And you can use the same exact principle to make exercise a
habit. Watch the video below to see how you can put it into
action as you work from home.

Skill #4: Manage your emails
Email is a great tool. But it can suck up the most productive
hours of your day if you’re not careful. And once you start
working from home, you’ll get more and more messages since
people can’t stop by your desk to ask questions.
Some of them will be urgent and important, most of them won’t
be. It’s your job to make the call. Luckily, since I get thousands of
emails a day — and yes, I read all of them — I can give you some
advice.
How to put your email on autopilot
My goal is to not answer emails. Instead, I think of email as a tool.
This is where so many Inbox Zero people go wrong. The goal
is not zero emails in your inbox — it’s actually getting the right
things done.
I don’t give a damn if I end the day with zero unread emails or
350. I only care about getting the right things done.
One of the ways I do that is to stop waiting on responses, and
instead systematize follow-ups so I don’t have to remember to
do them.
For example, if I send an email about a project but I can’t
proceed until I get a response from somebody else, I need to
make sure I stay on top of it.
So I use SaneBox to automatically remind when I need to send a
follow-up email.
It looks like this:

I also use it to automatically elevate important emails to the top
of my inbox. Others get de-emphasized and I can read them
later.
The exact script to set up a meeting and
minimize back and forth emails
Talking on the phone to set up meetings only takes a few
seconds. But if you use that same conversation framework on
email, you’ll create a long thread of messages, waste time, and
be a nuisance for everyone involved.
There’s a better way.
I like to have canned scripts for the most common situations I’ll
encounter. That way, I can read an email, mentally categorize it,
and reach into my vault of scripts to select the best response.
Here’s one I use to set up meetings that saves me hours of back
and forth every year.

Following the steps laid out in this section will make you more
productive and keep your sanity in check. But if you’re interested
in even more material on this, I’ve put together a free guide
called How to Stop Procrastinating and Finish What You Start.
Just click below for instant access...
Yes, I want to get things done!

PART 3
How to communicate
effectively so nobody
realizes you’re gone
It was only a few years ago that people would gather around a
conference table with a device like this in the middle:

That way an entire group of people could talk with others no
matter where they were in the world.
The really fancy rooms even had monitors with video so
everyone could see whoever they were calling.
The quality wasn’t always the best. Video feeds cut out. People
inched closer to the phone in order to talk and they would still
sound fuzzy.
Things have changed.
Now team members can communicate with each other with just
a laptop from a coffee shop. The sound and video quality are
also top notch.
And many other tools have come along so you don’t even need
to dial in and use video to collaborate on things anymore.
Here are some of the tools we use at IWT to run a multimillion-
dollar business with dozens of employees in 23 states and 6
countries.
Zoom
A great way for everyone to have face-time together. We’ve
run entire company meetings with dozens of employees, and
it’s great to see everyone rather than just hearing voices and
following along with presentation slides.

Go to Zoom.com
A basic account is free. If you have a bigger company, it’s worth
investing in one of the paid plans.
Slack
This reduces the amount of internal emails in a company. You can
direct-message team members. You can also set up channels by
subject matter like tech or sales.

Go to Slack.com
Channels are an easy way to organize conversations by team
and projects. They ensure that only the relevant people see the
message. Anyone who doesn’t need to be involved 100% of the
time can drop in the channel to see the status.
This is also free to get started. Paid plans depend on the number
of active users in your company.
Trello
Trello is a great tool for project management.
Here’s what a simple board for a writing team might look like:

Go to Trello.com
Any projects in the pipeline can go in the “unassigned” column.
Then a project manager could assign a team to it and move it
under “assigned.”
Once the project team starts working, it’ll move to the “drafting”
stage. After it’s completed, it’ll be shepherded through the
remaining three steps.
Managers can view a Trello board and get status updates and
due dates on things without having to hound people for them.
Basecamp
Basecamp has studied highly productive groups for 16 years and
bundled the 6 core things they all do into an amazing product.

Go to Basecamp.com
They found that effective teams take a record of every meeting.
So Basecamp created message boards to make it easy to follow
conversation history. This is super helpful if someone needs to
step in and get up to speed on things quickly.
They also found that productive teams don’t let questions linger.
Their chat feature makes it easy for anyone to ask questions and
get instant feedback.
And the study revealed that every great team has a leader who
makes sure things are moving along. Which is why they created
an automatic check-in to keep project managers up to date.
Team members don’t have to create progress reports or anything
like that.
To-do lists make it clear who is responsible for what and all the
deadlines.
File storage makes everything available in one place, and it can
act as a backup disk.

Finally, the central schedule keeps everyone up to date on major
milestones, vacation schedules, and any other upcoming events
that are important to know about. All these soft skills are even
more critical with remote teams. And Basecamp makes them
effortless.
Headset
A headset is must have when dialing into Zoom. It blocks out any
background noise from pets, screaming kids, or the landscapers
outside. Having one will help you get through your meetings in
peace.
Google Apps
Just about everyone is familiar with Gmail, but we also use
their documents and sheets apps. This eliminates the need for
attachments. You just copy and paste a link and send it around
on Slack or email, and everyone can view it without downloading
anything.

Go to Google Apps
The best part is that everything is backed up. If a team member’s
computer crashes, everything will still be saved on Google drive.
This has been a real lifesaver at times.
A final key productivity tool is to have a vault of email scripts
that you can use and tweak for any situation.
I have scripts on everything from giving meeting agendas to
finessing tricky situations to asking for time off.
Click here for instant access so you never again have to waste
time writing these...
Yes, give me the email scripts!

PART 4
Make “working from home”
one of your company’s
benefits
Your current job might be the best way to embark on your new
work-from-home lifestyle. Even if it’s not a common practice at
your company.
But you can’t just stand up on your desk one Friday afternoon
and declare, “From now on, I will work from home!”
Everyone will think you’re a weirdo, and building security will
usher you out of the office.
The key is this: If you’re great at what you do, you have A LOT
more leverage than you think.
To put everything into perspective, you’re not just a body they
hired. They had to screen hundreds of resumes, conduct 30+

phone interviews, and then invite a handful of people to meet in
person.
Many people forget this.
So if your manager gives you a glowing performance review, it’s
the perfect time to bring up the idea of working from home.
Don’t give any ultimatums. That can lead to confrontation, which
never works out well.
Instead, offer to do it on a trial basis. You can use what I call the
ARMS techniques to make it easy to get your boss’s stamp of
approval.
Those four letters stand for:
Here’s how it works in action:

Later that day…
Big Win!
The important thing to remember is that you’re proving the
concept for now. Once your boss agrees to this small request,
and it works out well, they’re more likely to agree to you working
from home regularly.
If your company is set in their ways, and you’re set on working
from home, don’t worry. There are tons of jobs that you can do
remotely now.

Here are some of the most common ones:
Virtual Assistant - First off, let me be clear. A virtual assistant
isn’t just some peon doing menial tasks. This is a demanding job.
A great assistant is one of the best tools executives and business
owners can have.
If you’re highly organized, can prioritize tasks, and keep
confidential information (you may have access to credit cards
and other personal info), this might be a great job for you. You
can make anywhere between $20K to $75K a year. It depends on
the responsibilities of the role and whether you’re doing it full- or
part-time.
Writer/Editor - Companies need blog posts, brochures, annual
reports, sales letters, case studies, and technical papers. These
things don’t write themselves. If you can churn out quality work
with deadlines looming around the corner, I guarantee there’s
a company out there who would love to hire you as their go-to
writer.
Editors and proofreaders are also in demand. It’s difficult for
writers to proofread their own work, and a great editor or
proofreader can reassure companies that they’re publishing
quality materials.
Salaries for these jobs range from $40K to over 6 figures,
depending on your experience and specialty.
Teacher - It used to be that teachers had to show up in a
classroom to lecture in front of a room full of students. That’s no
longer the case. High-speed internet and webcams have given
way to distance learning. Now teachers can give lessons right
from the comfort of their own homes.

Universities as well as public and private schools all have roles for
people to teach remotely.
The pay varies. If you’re a full-time teacher for a distance learning
program, you can expect what an average teacher in a similar
classroom role would make. If you’re part-time, you’ll probably
get a check for the hours you’re teaching. Tutoring is another
good opportunity to teach and work from home.
Tech Support - Are you the person who all your friends and
family come to whenever their computer craps out on them? If
so, you might find yourself at home working tech support for a
company.
You could be doing anything from troubleshooting tech issues
or walking people through how to install software. The average
salary is $34K a year.
Customer Service - Somewhere along the line, a bunch of
customers got pissed because all their calls were routed
overseas. People can only speak to someone named “Mark
Jackson” who talks with a heavy accent so many times before
they get frustrated and slam the phone on the floor.
As a result, companies are bringing customer service back home.
But instead of renting expensive call centers, they’re giving
people headsets and letting them work from home. Heck, lots of
customer service is done via email these days, so they might not
even need headsets.
Expect to make $30K as a full-time customer service rep.
Web Developer - Business owners and managers want to
focus on their jobs — not deal with headaches that come
with maintaining and updating their websites. Knowing about

WordPress plugins, HTML, CSS, and other website tools can be
your ticket to a job that pays $63K a year working from home.
Designer - Great design isn’t just a “nice thing to have” anymore.
It’s a business strategy. Think about buying an Apple computer.
You get a beautiful white box that makes you feel like royalty
when you open it to fetch your new computer.
Companies need people who know Photoshop, Illustrator, and
InDesign. These jobs typically pay $40K a year.
Sales Rep - If you’re great at sales, any company would be
thrilled to have you. And since you’re making the company
money, you get to call the shots. You could ask to be set up with
a home office where you make all your calls and answer emails.
You only travel for in-person sales calls if the job requires it.
The average salary is $55K. But for people who are really good,
the sky’s the limit. Commissions and bonuses can add up. It’s not
uncommon for top sales reps to be the highest paid people in
a company earning multiple 6-figure paychecks. They can even
make more than the CEO.
Marketing Specialist - Marketing taught in schools is all about
branding, market research, and strategy. But the internet has
created niche jobs that you don’t need a special degree to get.
If you know SEO, PPC, affiliate, or email marketing really well,
companies of all sizes need you right now.
You can make anywhere from $50K - $60K and work from home
depending on your experience.
Database Manager - Just a few years ago, companies used to
have dark air-conditioned rooms filled with computers where
they backed everything up. That’s not the case anymore. Thanks

to cloud computing, you can access data from anywhere in the
world now.
The boom in big data means this isn’t slowing down anytime
soon. If you can run SQL queries like nobody’s business, you may
be able to command a $70K job working from wherever you
want.
View full size
Finding jobs like this could free up time and money. The hidden
costs of office work can creep up on you. Most people don’t even
realize it.

How to land the coveted remote
jobs and ask for double the average
salary
Do the salaries for some of the jobs I listed seem low?
Are you thinking, “No way, I would never give up my job to take
that kind of pay, even if I got to work from home”?
That’s because those are average salary figures. Which implies
that the candidates are average as well.
The truth is, if you’re a top performer, you can find the best jobs
with awesome perks, and ask for MUCH more than you think
possible.
Many of my students have done it.
What do they know about getting their dream jobs that you’re in

the dark about?
Find out by downloading The 80/20 Guide to Finding a Job You
Love.
Yes, give me instant access to the guide!
Case Study: How IWT works with
dozens of employees in 23 states
and 6 countries
IWT started as a personal finance blog that I launched from my
Stanford dorm room. Over the years, as I got more readers, I
realized that living a Rich Life is about more than just money.
So I expanded into careers, freelancing, social skills, and online
business.
This would’ve been impossible without hiring a team to help me.
Early on, I made the decision to get the very best people I could
find. I didn’t want to be limited to geography. So every position I
post is open to anyone in the world.
We always get a flood of applications for any job opening. The
competition is fierce. But for the people who make it through the
hiring process, the work is challenging. And the perks are worth
it.
That’s the benefit of being a top performer. YOU get to call
the shots and decide how you want to live as long as you keep
producing results for the company.
As of writing this, we have dozens of employees in 23 states and

6 countries.
We have former professional athletes on the team. People
who used to manage Fortune 500 companies. Marketers and
copywriters who’ve worked behind the scenes on multimillion-
dollar launches.
Even entrepreneurs who never have to work for anyone else
again if they wanted have dropped everything they’re doing to
join our team.
Had I rented office space in some New York City high rise, I
would’ve never been able to attract this caliber of talent.
What IWT team members LOVE
about working from home
If you’re great at what you do, we might have a spot for you.
Click here to see IWT careers

PART 5
Starting a business isn’t as
complicated as it seems
Quiz time!

If you picked anything other than choice “E,” I’m gonna give you
a shot of tough love.
None of that stuff matters! The so-called experts who talk about
these tactics drive me nuts.
Starting a business isn’t complicated. Are you good at email
marketing? Find a few local businesses that need it and offer it
as a service.
Are you the math whiz who everyone copied their homework
from in school? You can probably find parents whose kids
desperately need help, and they’d be willing to pay you for it.
Do you love animals and live in a large apartment complex? I’m
sure you can find people going away every weekend who are
looking for someone to watch Fido.
Welcome to the world of freelancing.
Freelancing might be the best way to get started in business.
Startup costs are low, and if you’re getting a steady paycheck
from a full-time job, there’s hardly any risk.
Don’t be fooled by the informal nature of these gigs. These are
real businesses and you’d be surprised at how much you can
make from something like this — if you approach it the right way.
That’s what I want to show you in this section: How to identify
your first profitable idea and get your first 3 clients to cut you a
check.
So let’s dive in.

The simple test to find your first
profitable idea
Most people think of a business idea, then ask a few friends
about it who tell them, “Yeah! That’s an awesome idea! Do it!”
So they try it for a few months… and hear nothing but crickets.
I won’t let that happen to you.
The trick is this: Figure out if your idea will ever make money
before you invest tons of time in it.
To do this, we’re going to use something I call the Pay Certainty
Test, a technique that will let you eliminate half your ideas in less
than 15 minutes.
When you apply the Pay Certainty Test, you can quickly score
ideas to see if they have any possibility of being successful
before you dive too deep into developing them.
Here’s how it works.
Take each of your ideas and write them on a piece of paper. Next
to each idea, write down who would pay you for your service.
You should have a page that looks something like this:

Great. Now apply the Pay Certainty Test.
For each person who would potentially pay you, ask yourself:
• Are they willing and able to pay me for this service? Do
they have money and do they want to spend it on my ser-
vice? (The Demand Question)
• Am I willing and able to provide this service to them? Am I
knowledgeable enough to provide this service? (The Sup-
ply Question)

If the prospect is willing to buy, and you can provide, you’re on
the right track.
Example of the Pay Certainty Test in action:
Social media consultant for law firms
• Does a law firm partner have the ability to pay? Sure. Law
firms have deep pockets.
• Does a law firm have the willingness to pay for social
media? Heck no. Law firms don’t care about social media.
They recruit and market through other means.
The verdict: Eliminate the idea
Motivational consultant for 20-somethings looking for career
change
• Do they have the ability to pay? No. Most 20-somethings
barely have enough to scrape by, let alone hire a
motivational consultant.
• Willingness to pay? No. Even if they have the money, how

many 20-somethings ever talk about hiring a motivational
consultant? Not many.
The verdict: Eliminate the idea
Music instructor for ambitious children where the parents are
paying
• Ability to pay? Yes, parents of ambitious children tend to
have money.
• Willingness to pay? Yes, parents will spend a small fortune
to make sure their kids are successful and well-rounded.
The verdict: Great idea! Pursue it!
The Pay Certainty Test lets you rapidly eliminate bad ideas that
would have never earned you a cent and focus on the most
promising ones.
Find 3 paying clients
Most advice on finding your first client is awful. It looks
something like this:
In other words, “do awesome stuff and let people come.” Sure,
this can work for some people. But in my experience, it’s neither
reliable nor particularly effective compared to your other

options.
Instead, I recommend being as direct as possible. Especially
if you’re just starting out. That means finding prospects and
pitching them with the intent to sell.
Where can you find prospects? It depends on your target
audience, but you can find almost any type of person or business
that you’re looking for online:
• Yelp if you’re going after local businesses
• TechCrunch or AngelList for startups
• Google for just about everything else
Make a short list of prospects and email them with your offer.
You’re not asking them to buy — just if they’d be interested in
hearing more (over the phone, in a meeting, etc.).
Remember, your goal is to reduce risk. I get email pitches from
people all the time offering to work for me, and they’re almost
universally bad, precisely because they don’t do anything to
reduce my risk. Mainly the risk that reading their email will be a
waste of time.
Here are just some of the thoughts that run through my head
when I receive an email from a stranger:
• Who the heck is this and why should I care?
• Is this person smart or dumb? (This is why your writing
should be clear and concise)
• Most importantly, what’s in it for me?
Here’s an awesome pitch I got from a reader. In this case he
offered to work for free, but you don’t have to — it can work
either way. My comments are in bold:

The beauty in the direct model is in its simplicity. For example, if
you email 20 prospects and none of them get back to you, you
know the solution isn’t more blog widgets or a nicer-looking
logo. It’s that you need to experiment with changing either your
service, your target market, or your email copy to improve what
isn’t working.
On the other hand, if 5 out of 20 prospects respond positively,
you’re probably on the right track. Follow up with them, pitch
them your offer in person or on the phone, and get them to start
paying you!

Your goal from all of this is to find your first 3 paying clients.
Anyone can land a single client. You get lucky, or your friend
knows someone who hires you. But if you can land 3 paying
clients, that’s when you know you’re on to something.
Don’t worry about what to charge at this point. Even if you get
$50 bucks for a full day of work, that’s not a problem. You can
always adjust the price later so that you’re making $50, $100, or
even $200 an hour.
Many of my students did just that.
SUCCESS STORY
Meet Julia: The caricature artist
who went from “no idea” to earning
$125/hour
Julia didn’t consider herself an “entrepreneur.”

At 24 years old, she had been working at a non-profit for the last
8 years. “I liked it. Great company. The work was good – fulfilling.
I had great bosses. They were very flexible with my school
schedule. I really had a good gig.”
Julia was putting herself through school to become an
accountant, but when she decided to transfer to another college
in a new city, she had a problem. She couldn’t take the job with
her and worried about going broke…
Discover how Julia found her $125/hour idea
Most people don’t believe they have skills they can charge
money for. Then I tell them how in college I used to show Silicon
Valley venture capital firms how people were using social media
— and got paid for it. That’s something anyone can do.
I have a free tool that can show you that you’re sitting on a
goldmine of business ideas right now. I want to send it to you.
Click the button below.
Use this free tool to find your first profitable idea and earn your
first $1,000...
Give me instant access to the tool!

PART 6
Build a website that pays
you in your sleep
An online business that earns passive income is the holy grail
among people who follow lifestyle bloggers. It’s when you build
a website, do some work once, and then relax on the beach while
money floods into your PayPal account.
As someone who has built passive income through multiple
online business models, I can give you the pros and cons of each.
Some give you huge profit margins, take minimal time, and
scale easily. Others require a lot of time, overhead costs, and are
difficult to grow.
I’ve tested 6 different models, so let’s walk through them real
quick. Then you can decide what you want to take on.

View full size
Business Model #1 – Advertising
Most popular big-name websites make money through ads.
You’ve definitely seen them. They’re little advertisements —
usually Google AdSense — on the sidebars of a website.
Here’s how they work: As you get traffic, some people will click
those ads. When they do, you get a few cents, or even a few
dollars per click.
I tried this for iwillteachyoutoberich.com. But I quickly realized
ads don’t make that much money. In fact, what I learned was that
you need 50 million visitors — or more — per month to make a
good income from ads. That’s a lot of traffic.

Back when I started in 2004, I decided, “If I can’t cover my rent
with ads, why bother?” They’re ugly and distracting. Plus, I’ll end
up spending more time optimizing the click-through rate on
the ads than actually writing great content. So after trying that
experiment for a little while, I checked the box and said I’m not
interested in that business model.
Business Model #2 – Software
If you have the skills to create new software, this can be a
tempting option. The media loves to tell us stories about hot new
Silicon Valley startups and the founders of tech companies who
cashed out for millions after their company went public.
So we think starting an online business means you quit your job,
seek venture funding, and spend the next few years trying to
build the next Instagram.
But let’s face it, even venture capital firms know that most of the
companies in their portfolios will go belly up.
I tried dabbling in software for online business with IWT, but
the constant development resources needed to stay afloat were
too much. I’d rather have my team working on other things like
creating great products for you guys.
Although I’m not opposed to trying software again in the future,
we killed it for now.
Business Model #3 – Sell physical
products
I’m wary of this business model because the profit margins can
be terrifyingly low.

I know there’s some money to be made in this space. But I prefer
fat, juicy profit margins. That puts cash in the bank that you can
use to invest in your business, hire help, and much more.
Just to give you an example, we have a notepad that our
designers created internally for I Will Teach staff. We would have
had to price it at around $50 — for a teeny little notepad — just
to break even if we wanted to sell it. And after we shipped it to
people, our profits would’ve been decimated.
IWT Notebook

Physical products just introduce production costs, fulfillment,
and inventory issues. I’m not interested in any of that.
Business Model #4 – Affiliates
Here’s an example of how affiliates work: A blogger will write a
review of “My favorite credit cards.” And at the bottom they’ll
say, “You can sign up for the card here — NOTE: this is an affiliate
link.”
If you click that link and sign up, the credit card company is
going to pay that blogger an affiliate commission. Sometimes it’ll
be $50 or $75.
Over time, that can actually add up to a lot of money. And there
are affiliate programs for everything — from audio books to
weight-loss products.
For a long time, I avoided affiliates because I didn’t want people
to think I was recommending stuff just to make money. I only
wanted to recommend the best products.
But eventually I realized that my readers trusted me, and
they were already going to sign up for the accounts I was
recommending anyway. So I decided to try putting an affiliate
link in with one of my recommendations.
When I did — virtually overnight — I became ING Direct’s number
one affiliate in the world. I was making more than $10,000 a
month — just by putting a link on my site.
But I soon learned this wasn’t a great long-term plan. My click-
through rates tailed off and I ended up having to spend all this
time dealing with advertisers.

In the end, I realized it wasn’t worth the time, so I stopped.
Business Model #5 - Coaching
This comes as a surprise to a lot of my students. They’re looking
to create an online information product. But as they build their
email list, people message them saying: “Hey, I love what you do.
Do you offer coaching?”
There are a few great reasons to take people up on this offer:
• You can charge premium prices for one-on-one work
• You’re basically getting paid to do customer research. With
coaching, you’ll learn their deep fears, desires, and barriers
— information you can use to create an online product that
thousands can use
• It’s a chance to get great testimonials to sell more
coaching/other courses
• You don’t have to build anything or have a big audience
to get started with coaching. And you can earn money
quickly.

View full size
Business Model #6 – Online
information products
Now, my favorite business model: selling something you create.
Typically, these are information products, like a video course or
ebook.
You can create one that sells for $49 fairly quickly. But more
expensive, high-end courses take a lot longer. For example, when
we built Dream Job, we spent months on research, outlines,
testing, creation, and design.

You can use them to reach thousands of people all over the
world. It’s become the crux of our business and now we generate
over 95% of our revenue through our own products. I can’t
recommend it enough.
Many of my students have been very successful with this model.
SUCCESS STORY
Meet Bushra: The busy mother of 2
who earned $130,000 from an
online business

Although Bushra was earning 6 figures as a business consultant,
the busy mother of two wanted more freedom and flexibility in
her life. She knew an online business could help, but she didn’t
want to ruin her reputation with a “spammy online business.”
Read the story
When I started my online business, I had to learn through trial
and error. This cost me years of time and money, as well as head-
aches and frustration.
At the time, I would have killed for someone to give me a
blueprint. Any sort of map I could follow to make sure I was on
the right track.
Lucky for you, I created one based on my experience. Enter your
name and email below to see my step-by-step formula to grow
an online business. This is the blueprint I’d follow if I had to do it
all over again.
Get the step-by-step formula to grow an online business...
Yes, send me the formula now!

PART 7
The next steps to living a
Rich Life
At this point, you’ve learned some of the key systems and
strategies you need to work from home.
I’ve showed that you can work from home as a full-time
employee, freelancer, or business owner.
Now I want to help you dive deeper into the area that interests
you most.

Growthlab ultimate-guide-to-working-from-home

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