How to develop an income for Venezuelan people using the internet
A friend of mine from Venezuela contacted me lately and asked me if I could help him to develop a new income source to pay back some debt. With the drop in steem prices, the income that can be generated on steem is not what it was in the past.
This made me think somewhat. An alternative would be to develop a @splinterland account and earn DEC. I realized that this is however not so easy. In order to have a chance to really make money with splinterlands, it is necessary to invest quite a lot first. When we play with a starter set, it's almost impossible to go above silver level and the income from DEC is very limited.
I asked myself the following question:
With the possibilities that are available at the moment in Venezuela, how could it be possible to earn an income online?
What income possibilities are available now?
Obviously it's almost impossible to run a business within the country with people having hardly enough to eat. So the income should come from abroad. At the moment the following sources of income are quite easily available:
- income from steem posts
- income from curation rewards
- income from dtube videos
- income from crypto currency faucets (check out my free online course)
All these income sources have in common that they don't offer a big income and are closely linked to the currencies.
What type of income sources could be developed
It would be possible to promote affiliate or referral links and develop an affiliate marketing business. It would also be possible to create digital products and sell them all over the world. I have some experience in this sector and I believe this could be a real alternative for people from Venezuela since they are well qualified and I believe that their knowledge is their primary asset. There is however one problem. A lot of the tools necessary for such projects do not come for free. How could a Venezuelan pay for such services?
I researched quite in dept the internet to find solutions that could allow somebody from Venezuela to build up his own products for free:
How to run a website for free
The basis for having an online business is a website that allows to promote services or products. A great way of doing that is to run a blog. Well surprise, we have an amazing tool here on steem. It's free and it even pays you to use it. The website to promote the products and services could be steemit.
How to host and sell digital products
I've tested a lot of services that allow you to create digital products. Very few come with a free service that allows to host and sell digital products. The best service that offers three free courses to an unlimited number of students is Thinkific. This website allows you to create your own courses. You can offer free or paid courses. There is a paypal integration which permits to sell your courses and get immediate income. The platform seems quite complex at the beginning and it probably requires some time to get used to it.
How to develop leads and create a list of followers
I've been using a service called Mailchimp. Mailchimp allows you to send e-mails and to manage your list of followers. The free plan allows you to have up to 2000 followers. What is amazing is that you can build fully automated e-mails for free. Let's say somebody signs up to your list. You can then program what kind of mails he should get from the start. Maybe just after signing up, he will get a welcome mail. Then two hours later you send him the first lesson of a course, then a day later the second lesson. This is fully automated and free! There is only one important limit. It's forbidden zu put affiliate or referral links in these mails.
How to create videos for free
When you want to create online courses, it's important to use video as a medium. For somebody from Venezuela this can represent a problem. Where to get a good camera and where to film. That's why I suggest the following procedure to create videos.
Step 1: Create a power point presentation using Microsoft power point or open office presentation (free software available here)
Step 2: Use the open source screen capture software OBS Studio to film your powerpoint presentation and record your voice. You can download OBS Studio for free here. If done properly, it's not necessary to edit the videos and you can upload them directly to dtube, youtube or to your online course.
What to teach?
When you want to develop an online course or any type of paid content, the one thing that will need most time to consider is what you want to teach. I realized that everybody has something where he is really good at and that there are always people who are less good than him and who could learn from him.
During my studies, I wrote newspaper articles for a very renown newspaper here in Switzerland. However I knew almost nothing about the subject that I had to write about. So I read several articles and developed my own knowledge first. After some development, I was able to write quality content for this newspaper. What I want to say is that everybody can become a specialist in a certain field. This field can be anything from arts, sports, business, health...
Building an automated sales funnel
This whole process will take a lot of time to build but once it is build, it could become a major source of income that works on autopilote. For that it is necessary to build a sales funnel. This is a path that should let visitors become leads and leads become customers.
Step 1: Building a lead capture page
This is the central page to make people become a lead, a follower. For that you need a lead magnet. This is a kind of freebie like an e-book, a check-list, a mini course. You offer this for free and it is this freebie that you will promote. The freebie should be in relation to the content of your product. So the leads will be already qualified, interested in what you offer. As a freebie you could use a part of your online course.
To build it you will need a free lead capture page with mailchimp. You can then automate that the user who enrolls gets the freebie attached to the mails that you send him. Here an example how such a lead capture page could look like.
In your posts you will always put in your signature the link to this lead capture page. For example: Get my free mini-course about subject abc.
Step 2: Build an automated e-mail sequence
The next step is now to let your lead become a customer. For that you can send him a couple of mails where you promote your online course. There you will link to the sales page of your online course that you will establish with Thinkific. The sales page should then play the trick to sell the course to the lead.
You can also send regular mails to your leads and give them notice when you write a relevant post.
Driving traffic to your sales funnel
Once you have built the sales funnel, it is important to build traffic. The best way to do this is to create many entry points to your sales funnel by posting the link to the lead capture page in many places. You can use steem posts, dtube videos, youtube videos, facebook, linkedin, forum and many other places to do so.
You end up with a machine that can generate income for you automatically. It's a lot of work to be done once but you can then multiply it by creating new products and using your existing mailing list to promote it.
A long term business
When you go into such a project, it's not something that will bring results immediately. You will need time till somebody buys your product. At the same time you will be able to develop your own brand and your competence in a certain sector where you have a specific knowledge.
The most important thing is that you do something that you are very good at. That you develop your area of expertise and that you develop yourself in this field. The more content you will produce, the better you will get and the more elaborate your products are going to become. This is a long term strategy.
Such a project is not limited to people in Venezuela. Everybody could do this. From experience, I know that it takes a lot of dedication and stamina. You need to be well organized and consider it as real work.
Please tell me whether you could imagine to start such a project?
Thank you for always looking out for us on this side of the world.
It's a great option that brings us, it's a matter of considering it. The only investment to be made is time.
Generally we concentrate on obtaining income in the immediate (with reason), but we must forge a base that can maintain us in the near future.
I repeat, thank you!
Thank you very much for your comment.
When struggeling to get enough to buy food and drink, it is totally understandable to look out for immediate income. I believe however that building up a long term project like this could help to provide in a more distant future and make a big difference.
Now that you mention it, I'm about to sell some Steem for those reasons. I really don't want to, but it's necessary.
I have to go to work for a couple of hours, when I come back if nothing extraordinary has happened, I have to sell.
Greetings!
Hi @achim03, I think those are great instructions. Good job, I hope many people will read it and it will help many.
Thank you for your comment and for stopping by!
Dear @achim03
I believe that you meant "debt" instead of "dept" :P
The problem with all mentioned ways of earning money is the fact, that barriers to "enter the market" are very low so competition will be obviously fierce. Pretty much always.
At the end of the day, to make money one must: either have already money or be doing something unique and different from other people out there.
Upvote on the way. Enjoy your upcoming weekend buddy
Cheers, Piotr
Thanks for pointing out this... Edited it ;-)
You are right that the entry threshold is comparatively low in technical terms. It is however the level of knowledge that you can provide and sell that makes the difference. If you find a nice niche, competition doesn't have to be overwhelming.
I believe that owning money might help you in worlds such as steem. Othwerise to make an income online, it is not really too helpful. Well of course if you have a well assorted porfolio with shares and bonds this is another matter. Where you are right is that you have to work to be unique and offer something in a way that makes a difference. Creativity is requested ;-)
A nice week-end to you too my friend!
Hi @achim03
Many times having the money needed to survive in Venezuela is very difficult. Sometimes I think so many things to get a little more money, all I do in steemit is just to buy food.
I have done many jobs until I have worked as a taxi driver but it is very rough in this country, they can kill you just for stealing what little you do working as a taxi driver, I do not do that anymore, but I do not deny that I was doing very well at least to be able to Buy food daily.
Now I am with the university and two other jobs, and the best thing I like steemit.
. Sorry for the abuse. I left you a message in your wallet.
I send you a great fraternal arm that manages to cross oceans.
Heavens! It is true that taxi driver work is dangers in our country.
It is unfortunate that teachers are in such a miserable situation.
I have a colleague who recently left the country and was tired of working in two different places and "killing tiger" as a night watchman in a warehouse in an industrial area near his home.
Not even with three jobs, in which he was from Monday to Monday, in addition to that in the night watchman he was keeping a guard all weekend, could he do enough to maintain the three meals of his two children.
Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I've sent you a mail
Best regards,
Achim
Thank you for taking time to make all these recommendations and to guide on how to generate additional income within our Country-Reality
Thanks a lot for stopping by and leaving your comment!
Great advice @achim03, affiliate marketing is a good way to create an income, but it will take both time and dedication to make it, so it's important to start the right way, and to be honest the Mailchimp ban on affiliate links is not very promising despite being free, a better way might be to go with a paid but affordable autoresponder for $10 to $18 per month that can be paid with the earnings from Steem and tribes, and that has an affiliate program itself where you can start to profit with just 3 referrals, keep up your great work and stay awesome.
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Hi,
Thank you very much for your great comment. I totally agree with you that mailchimps ban for affiliate link is not really good for business. I manage to go around it by simply sending my readers to my own website where I write an article or post a video. I would then include the affilate link or tracking link on my website. Like that I don't go against the rules.
As for people from Venezuela, $18 represents 3 months salary. It's simply not possible for them to afford it at least at the very beginning. That's why I came up with the Mailchimp solution. Trafficwave is a great alternative and it offers an amazing possibility to be paid with referral income!
Thanks a lot for stopping by!
Thanks @achim03, my suggestion was not to take $18 from their own pocket but earn that on the Steem blockchain and invest in an autoresponder and then use affiliate marketing to have it pay for itself and make a profit, but as you said that also takes time.
If you really want an autoresponder for free and be able to use affiliate links then freefollowup might be good, the drawback is that they serve ads, that is how it's free, and there is only one list per account, but you are allowed to have as many accounts as you want, there is also unlimited amounts of emails and unlimited subscribers, but as I said they serve ads on their site and in all outgoing emails.
I didn't know about freefollowup. This could be an interesting alternative. Thank you for your suggestion.
👍😀
I am concerned that the current government might have a significant holding of Bitcoin. It could go any number of ways, both for the Venezuelan people and the crypto community.
You are quite right about that!
@achim03, I don't know if it will going to help Venezuelans or not. But i want to appreciate your effort, you've came up with lot of effective suggestions and deep dived into the opportunities. Stay blessed.
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Thank you very much for your kind comment!
Welcome.
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Hello dear @achim03.
I see that you spent several hours of your valuable time to create this important post and you did it thinking about us Venezuelans. Friend: for you I have a giant applause!
All these ways of monetizing seem positive, but effective in the medium or long term. Obviously, those of us who think about developing actions in this sense must be honest with ourselves and be aware that the possible gains will not come overnight.
Even posting on steemit or using our blog as a website for a product or service, needs time to gain projection.
As a complement to your publication I have a couple of approaches:
All these skills can be offered on community platforms where experts promote their projects and need specialized personnel.
There are two platforms that caught my attention a lot and are totally effective. Although it takes a while to gain a certain reputation and opt for the best projects.
I recommend trying:
Your Friend, Juan.
Hi Juan,
Thank you very much for this great comment. You are right that platforms like Fiverr and Peopleperhour represent another niche opportunity. It would also be possible to combine all this.
For example, provide a free online course where you can show the basis of your knowledge and then refer to your fiverr offer. Like that you can build your brand and then propose your expert knowledge.
Best regards,
Achim
You are very creative.