Happy February!

I hope you’ve had a good week. 😊

Only T-minus 4 months until we hit the road and I’m getting excited!

I’ve started researching unique and amazing things to do and see in Australia and there is so much! I’ll be posting my findings on the FB Page so be sure to keep a look out!

Here’s what I have for you today;

• Five $10k Side Hustles You Can Run From Anywhere

• Zero to $10k Etsy Challenge Update - some exciting progress

• How gratitude can change your life and 2 ways to believe in yourself - podcast recommendations

• My FB Page got hacked - can I ask you a favour?

But first…

In which country can you explore an underground city made entirely of salt, featuring everything from chapels to chandeliers, deep beneath the earth's surface?

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter!

Five $10k/month Side Hustles You Can Run From Anywhere

These days there are so many opportunities to start and run an online business or side hustle it’s untrue.

Literally if you have an idea, the chances are you can monetize it.

• Love yoga? Start a YouTube channel

• Love exotic fish and home based aquariums? Start a TikTok account

• Trying to figure yourself out and grow as a person? Blog about it!

Each of those suggestions are multi million dollar business ideas in todays online world and if you think it’s too saturated out there think again.

There are far more people online who simply consume content, rather than create it, and a third of the world is still without internet, so opportunity is only going to grow.

Here are 5 business models I recommend, that you could build to $10k/month with some focus and dedication!

1. Service Based Business

This is the next step up from freelancing and is a great business model in the fact you can start charging immediately for your skills and expertise.

My fabulous free diving friend Ryan who moves between Chiang Mai, Koh Tao and Bangkok as it pleases him, runs a consulting and done for you business, supplying content to companies who don’t want to go through the rigmarole of hiring and training writers etc.

Ryan has a bank of writers ready to go, for which he charges a monthly retainer based on how much content is required, and charges his own time out at $65/hour for any extra consultation.

What I love about it;

Fairly easy to get started, infinite growth and can charge much higher rates than you would likely get paid doing the same thing inside a J.O.B.

Cons;

To grow you need to hire, so unless your hiring and training skills are on par, this can become a grind.

How to get started;

1. Identify a skill you can do standing on your head

2. Create a profile on Upwork or similar and offer your services

3. Start networking in relevant groups, attend events

4. Offer to help out some friends or contacts for free

5. Get some amazing testimonials for your profiles/website

6. Start charging for your own services

7. Begin hiring and start charging for your teams services

8. Learn, implement and grow!

2. Start a Blog 

If you love to write, have a passion about a specific niche and would like a platform that houses all your content and is fully ‘owned’ by you (not a third party like Facebook, YouTube etc), consider starting a blog.

I love the blogging model, even though I got hit by Google last year, and I know a LOT of bloggers who are generating upwards of $50k a month in display advertising alone!

What I love about it;

Very easy to start, all you need is a hosting plan and a free Wordpress installation. It has the capacity to generate a lot of income, plus once you have an audience you can diversify and add a podcast, products, services, a community etc.

Cons;

Building a dedicated audience takes time and consistent effort. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you rely only on google, one algorithm change could wipe you out (says the voice of experience). Build an email list, create a social media presence, optimize for SEO and attract your traffic and audience from a diverse range of sources.

How to get started;

1. Identify a topic you're passionate and knowledgeable about.

2. Choose a hosting service and set up your blog with WordPress.

3. Write valuable posts that resonate with your audience.

4. Use social media and SEO to attract traffic to your blog.

5. Monetize through ads, affiliate marketing, or products.

3. Create a Digital Course

Sharing your expertise through a digital course can be incredibly rewarding and lucrative. Whether you're a seasoned chef, a yoga guru, or a marketing whiz, there's an audience eager to learn from you.

What I love about it:

The beauty of digital courses is the "create once, sell many times" model. You put in the effort upfront, and then your course can be sold an unlimited number of times, providing passive income. Plus, it's incredibly fulfilling to see others grow and succeed through your teachings.

Cons:

Creating a high-quality course requires a significant upfront investment of time and possibly money. You'll need to ensure your content is engaging, valuable, and (reasonably) professionally presented to stand out in a crowded market.

How to get started:

1. Pinpoint your expertise that others are eager to learn.

2. Understand your audience's needs and what they seek to solve.

3. Map out your course with clear modules and lessons.

4. Craft engaging content, be it videos, guides, or quizzes.

5. Pick a platform like Teachable, Udemy, or Kajabi for your course.

6. Launch your course using your network, social media, and email.

7. Use feedback to refine and update your course continually.

4. Start a Newsletter

Over the last couple of years, newsletters have had a huge revival, serving as a direct line to your audience's inbox. Whether you're sharing industry insights, life updates, travel stories, or how-to guides, a newsletter can be a powerful platform for connection and income.

What I love about it:

The intimacy of a newsletter is unmatched. It's like having a one-on-one conversation with each of your subscribers. Plus, the flexibility to monetize through sponsorships or subscriptions allows you to tailor your approach to what feels right for you and your audience.

Cons:

Building a loyal subscriber base takes time and consistent effort. You'll need to deliver value consistently to keep your audience engaged. Also, finding the right balance between monetization and providing free value can be tricky.

How to get started:

1. Decide on the theme or topics your newsletter will cover.

2. Use a platform like Beehiiv, Substack, or ConvertKit for your newsletter.

3. Grow your list through your network, blog, and social media.

4. Share valuable, engaging content in your newsletters.

5. Choose monetization method;

   • Free with Sponsors: Keep your newsletter free but include sponsored content or ads from businesses that align with your audience's interests.

   • Paid Subscriptions: Offer premium content, such as exclusive insights, deep dives, or additional resources, to paying subscribers.

6. Use feedback and analytics to refine your content and strategy.

5. Print on Demand E-commerce Business

A Print on Demand (POD) e-commerce business allows you to sell custom-designed products without the need for inventory or large upfront investments. From t-shirts and hoodies to mugs and phone cases, if you've got a knack for design or catchy phrases, this could be the ideal business for you.

What I love about it:

The beauty of POD is its simplicity and scalability. You create the designs, and your POD service takes care of the printing and shipping. It's a fantastic way to monetize your creativity or brand without the hassle or costs of traditional retail.

Cons:

While starting is easy, standing out in a crowded market can be challenging. It requires unique designs and effective marketing to capture attention. Also, your profit margins might be lower compared to manufacturing and selling your own products due to the convenience of POD services.

How to get started:

1. Identify a specific audience or theme for your designs. It could be travel quotes for nomads, motivational sayings for entrepreneurs, or anything that resonates with a particular group.

2. Create designs using tools like Adobe Illustrator or Canva.

3. Select a POD platform like Printful, Teespring, or Redbubble to upload your designs.

4. Integrate your POD with Etsy, Shopify or WooCommerce for your online store (or use a POD marketplace like Redbubble or Zazzle.)

5. Promote your products through social media, content marketing, and ads.

6. Use sales data and customer feedback to improve your designs and strategy

The opportunities really are endless!

Just remember that everything, no matter which model you choose, will take longer than you think.

The trick is to just get started. Don’t waste time trying to think of the one idea that hasn’t been thought of yet, or worrying about your USP. The more action you take, the faster you’ll start to identify your own gap in the market.

Just pick a model that works best with your personality and time commitments and start taking steps every single day to move it forward.

What’s stopping you?

In fact, what is stopping you? I’d really like to know. Click one (or more) of the options below and tell me a bit more about where you are in your journey.

Zero to Etsy $10k Challenge

I’ve made some exciting progress this week so I’ll give a quick update here and write a longer post on the blog this week.

Firstly, behind the scenes, I’ve created what I hope will become a fantastic travel brand. I’ve honed in on a specific subset of the market and my goal is to use Etsy to see which POD products are the most popular.

Once I have some winners, and provided the research and numbers pan out, I’ll manufacture the products myself and sell on Amazon for much higher margins. I won’t be revealing this brand yet but you’ll soon know what it is as I’ll be advertising the products on the website!

For the purposes of this challenge however, I’m running a ‘dummy’ shop which I’ll share publicly, and so decided on a product keyword that seemed to have a decent amount of searches but less available products. (I’ll go into more details about volume vs results etc on my post.)

And that’s ‘dog socks’! But not just any dog socks, customised dog socks. 

So in other words, I create a base design, people order the socks, send in pics of their dogs, I then add their dog pics to the design & they get socks with their dogs head all over them.

I used my own dog to design the first pair. Here’s my very own Buddy on a pair of socks!

The first thing my daughter & her friends said was ‘ooh can we get those?’ (her friends meant with their own dogs pic of course).

If they prove popular I could expand to pajama pants, t-shirts, cushions and all sorts. Who doesn’t love their pet over everything right!? 😂

So quick caveat. I logged into Printify (the POD platform) opened Canva and immediately thought ‘Nope’, I’m not a designer. So I’ve outsourced the design work from the getgo.

It’s an important point as you have to work to your strengths or you could spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to get good at something and then produce mediocre results. Or you may just think, ‘I can’t do that’ and not even start.

Outsourcing can be a lot cheaper than you think, but I will talk a lot more about this and everything else in the post I write this week.

So we’re almost off to the races. A few tweaks to make the design better, some good listing photos and I’ll be live!

Exciting! 

From the Web

Every week I read or listen to a lot of content about travel, nomadism and entrepreneurship.

Here’s some of my favourite finds from this week;

This guy - Eric Farewell, has so much energy and enthusiasm, he was a joy to listen to. And his views on gratitude are potentially life changing if you apply his thought process. Well worth a listen.

If you’re feeling a little bit of self doubt and not sure you can do the thing you want to do, have a listen to this. It’s a bit dramatic in parts, (I’m a Brit after all), but the message is solid!

Looking forward to this one, Greg’s book Essentialism is a fantastic read. Got this lined up on my podcast app next!

I did not know this!….. I won’t be using an airport charging station in the future.

These retreats sound awesome! I’m so happy menopause is starting to get the attention it deserves. It does after all affect 50% of the population!

More and more nomad visas are being rolled out. In fact I wrote a huge post including all the countries with nomad visas or similar, (will need to amend Japan now) here it is;

My Facebook Page Got Hacked

Could I please ask a HUGE favour.

My facebook page got hacked a couple of weeks ago, the hacker set up an ad on my ad account and removed me as admin of my page.

Thankfully, I stopped the ad after only $0.31 had been spent and although it took 5 days of emails and chats I got my FB page back. (I was lucky, I read horrible stories about people getting their entire personal account hacked and all info - photos etc - getting deleted).

So it’s all good. However, just before the hacking I was starting to gain traction with my posts and getting some good engagement levels. Since the hack it’s as if my posts have been throttled and are getting less visibility.

So here are some of my posts from the last week that I hope you’ll enjoy.

My opinions on the Leaning Tower of Pisa

What is Lifestyle Design

A meme about Digital Nomadism

Would you just take 5 mins to check them out and give a like or a comment or a share etc, just to see if it makes a difference. Plus I love chatting on FB so I’ll respond to all comments.

Other than that I post every day and try to make the posts funny, inspiring or valuable, so please bookmark my page as one of your faves and visit when you can to say Hi!

Thanks so much! 😊 

Trivia Answer

Poland!

The underground city made of salt is located in Wieliczka, near Krakow, Poland, and it's called the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

It was created in the 13th century and has been a working salt mine until 1996. The mine features an extensive complex of underground rooms, tunnels, chapels, and even lakes, all carved out of the salt deposits.

It became a tourist attraction due to its unique salt sculptures, stunning underground chapels, and the remarkable health benefits attributed to its microclimate.

I’ll definitely be visiting that at some point!

That’s All Folks

That’s it from me this week. I hope this edition has been the right mix of fun, informative and useful.

If not, I would love to hear from you! Just click one of the links in the section below and let me know what kind of content would make the most difference to your life, travels and business/income.

Have a fabulous week, live your best life and as always get out there and make it happen!

Jo 😊 

P.S. I’m writing this from a hotel room in Bangkok as I’m off to see Coldplay in concert tonight! Apparently a visual spectacle & the last gig of their Asian tour! I’ll share some pics on FB 😁