10 Ways to Benefit from ICT Learning and Making Money While You Sleep

Now more than ever, people are looking for new ways to make money 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without the need to remain stationed at a desk. But, these new passive ways of earning money do require you to invest a small amount of time automating your work processes. Let me take you through the process.

There are thousands of ways you can make money on the side nowadays. As long as you have an internet connection and a computer or mobile device, your opportunities are endless. Examples of new jobs you could consider for your side hustle include:

• Blogging
• Teaching online
• Creating ebooks
• Building and flipping websites

While the opportunities for online work are endless, automating them can be more challenging. Although working online will allow you to work from anywhere, it would also be nice to have so spare time on your hands, am I right? If you have found work you enjoy but want to take it a step further by generating income while you sleep, check out my top 10 secrets.

1. Automate marketing, sales and customer care chatbots

While you may have already delegated some of your marketing, sales and customer care duties to team members, or even automated them with tools such as Hootsuite, there is an easier way to take the time and monetary load off your shoulders.

Chatbots have become extremely popular recently because the technology powering them has evolved dramatically. Today, creating an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot is a piece of cake, and thanks to chatbot-building platforms, you don't even need any coding knowledge.

You can create a chatbot that:

• Can take orders and answer customer queries from Facebook Messenger, comments, and posts
• Integrates with all the major payment platforms
• Is available 24/7 to answer customers from across the world
• Can push personalized promotions, offers, and deals, on demand

2. Promote yourself as a brand

Whether you have already found success or are still on the path to finding it, you should look at ways in which you can promote yourself as a brand. Of course, your chatbot will help with minor marketing tasks, but you need to promote yourself in a way that makes others aware that you are a trustworthy, reputable, and a reliable authority figure in your industry.

To achieve this, create informational products, such as books, videos, and online magazines for your audience. Once you've put in hours creating these pieces, the next step is simply to market them and watch the money roll in.

3. Simplify your outputs

You can't do everything, especially if you want to automate the operational aspects of your business. To get everything done to the best of your ability, you need to simplify your outputs. To do this, hone in on what you are offering.

Instead of offering a huge variety of products and services to your audience, focus on a maximum of five that you do perfectly and grow from there. Take Starbucks, for example. The brand offers coffee, sweets, and some fast food. The simplicity by which it operates is a key reason why it's able to expand its offerings on a global scale.

4. Sell at a flat rate

Selling your products and services at various rates is complicated and not efficient. Aside from the fact that you probably have clients big and small, from across the world, it can make your invoicing system messy. Create a company that offers specific services at a flat rate and allow customers to buy these subscriptions and packages directly from your website. You'll make more direct sales and your customers will automatically be more invested in you.

Create a company that offers specific services at a flat rate and allow customers to buy these subscriptions and packages directly from your website. You'll make more direct sales and your customers will automatically be more invested in you.

5. Create a product or service that never goes out of fashion

You need to create a business that either offers a product or service that many people need now or better yet, one that won't go out of fashion. When it comes to products, think of one that can be created cheaply and that requires refills to function.

With this, you'll not only make huge amounts of money selling the original product, but you will receive a steady stream of revenue from the individual refills. Think about a printer, for example; you can now buy one at a very reasonable price, but to use it, you will always need ink. Printers are the product and ink cartridges are the refills.

6. Become an affiliate

There are a number of ways you can make money without really doing much. For example, you could become an Amazon affiliate. If Amazon makes a sale that comes from the link on your website, you make a profit. Simple. If you have the right following, you could find affiliate marketing extremely profitable.

7. Teach others

By teaching others, I don't mean switching careers altogether to teach math in a primary school. I'm referring to taking an authoritative role in your field of work and teach entrepreneurs your methods. There are a number of ways you can teach others, some of which include:

• Mentoring
• Lecturing at a college or university
• Writing a blog
• Creating a book
• Talking at events and conferences

8. Invest in other companies

An investment is, in simple terms, a way for your money to make more money. Although your lending needs to be calculated, you should invest some of your profits into other companies that fulfill other needs your customers may have. It's a good way for you to make more money while establishing yourself as a figure that helps others and understands your audience's desires.

9. Hire a team

As I mentioned before, you can't do everything on your own. Simplifying your outputs is great, but you need to have the right team to back you up. You need a team that is reliable and diverse. Every area of your company needs to be covered by an expert in that field. You will need a marketing, sales, customer care, finance, and human resources guru, among others.

10. Optimize your efforts

Once every aspect of your company is up and running, you must evaluate, re-evaluate, and optimize them to ensure they are performing to the best of their ability. You wouldn't write a blog post without proofreading and optimizing it; the same goes for the rest of your marketing, sales, finance, and other operations.

In Conclusion…

Automating your processes will help you organize yourself in a way that makes your operations efficient. By doing so, you will not only make money while you sleep, but you will also have more time to invest in other projects that can be automated in the same way, creating a money-making life-cycle that could eventually make you millions.

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5 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Starting Your Business

When you're watching other people play Scrabble, it's easy to see ample opportunities to place tiles and score more points. But, when you're actually in the game yourself, it can be harder.

This is exactly what happens to new entrepreneurs. Often, they have many business ideas but lack the capacity to understand the risks, experience and time associated with startup success.

The big question is: What should new entrepreneur know before launching their businesses? There is no complete answer to this question, because some things will affect some businesses and not others. But, here are five questions you definitely should ask yourself when trying to start a business.

1. Why am I starting this business?

 

 

 

People start businesses for various reasons. Some do not want to take orders while others are tired of the 9 to 5 work day. Still others just want to join the bandwagon and make some money.

If you're starting your business for any of these reasons, you're probably going to fail.

Instead, you should have a purpose for starting a business. For instance, I set up a business research consultancy firm in 2014 because I felt people in my locality lacked practical knowledge of business plans and feasibility studies. I launched my business to meet a need, and I have profited from it.

It's crucial to thoroughly examine any initiative you wish to launch. This is because you could be faced with many business ideas. Just be careful not to lose focus. With each new idea, sit back and think through the pros and cons, then launch.

Noah Krinick, founder and partner of Solo Rugs, said, "Every entrepreneur should be able to answer the question, 'Why are you doing this?' It seems like a simple question, but there will inevitably be times when things go wrong, hope is dwindling and you need to remind yourself of why you're in it. As an entrepreneur, building and growth is a process that never fully ends. It is great practice to give yourself a mission statement to maintain focus on the project goals as well as personal ones."

2. What is my target market?

Knowing your target market is very important, since your sales and profits hinge on it. Remember: If you target everyone, you're targeting no one. You need to focus and identify your target audience by carrying out a market survey.

Reach out to your prospective customers by sending out questionnaires or directly speaking to them. By doing these, you can provide a product or service people really want. In an email interview, Sarah Brennan, fashion expert at Clothingric, said, "A business's focal point is the target market. If you don't have a well-defined target market, then, you scramble for everybody in the market. Just know that everybody can be nobody."

3. What is my digital strategy?

Nearly half of U.S. small businesses don't have a website. The contemporary business world cannot thrive without digital technology. In our contemporary world, clients and customers are going digital. The conventional methods of sales, marketing and delivering goods and services to clients and customers are phasing out. Clients and customers are now yearning for more efficient methods of buying products and services.

It is easy to manage business nowadays. By engaging in digital marketing, you can reach out to billions of prospective customers all over the world. You can also automate some of the business tasks using sophisticated software. You can start with Apptivo which can allow you to do everything you need in one cloud solution.

4. What goes into my business plan?

Some people believe writing a business plan is only necessary when you're seeking outside funding, but a good business plan actually indicates whether a business is feasible or not, breaking down its strengths and weaknesses.

Write out your business plan. Detail the financial, operational and marketing.

Venturing into a business is a choice. Our choice today determines our result in the foreseeable future. Thus, all planning should center on your business plan, so you can avoid surprises later.

5. What are my competitive advantages?

Customers will patronize your goods and services if you offer something better or different from your competitors. One important thing to do when you are launching your business is to deliver what your customer wants and not necessarily what you want.

 

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10-Step Guide To Building Your First Mobile App

 


Why do you want to build a mobile app? Do you want to ride the wave of other entrepreneurs, or did you come across a problem that you feel you can resolve? The answer to this question will determine whether your app will be successful or not.

Here is a guide to get you started, but note it may not work for everyone. This is drawn from my experience working for more than three years with entrepreneurs, helping them build and market their mobile apps. Take from it what suits your strategy best, or follow it to the hilt. The important part is to get started.

Step 1: Get an idea or a problem

If you already have an app idea, move onto step two. If not, read on. Want to build an app but don’t have an app idea? What you really need are problems, and they’re everywhere!

Successful entrepreneurs solve problems in a way that we could not have imagined. When you look around you, every product and service you use were all created to solve a problem. You wanted to get from one place to another faster, you got a car. You wanted to get from one country to another faster, you got planes.

So look for problems in your daily life and list each one of them. Once you have an exhaustive list, then start to think on how you can resolve them and shortlist the ones that make most sense.

Step 2: Identify the need

Validation will prove that a demand exists for your app. You can validate your idea by using the Google Keyword Planner tool to look for the number of people seeking out what you’re trying to do. You could also build a landing page that broadly highlights your app idea and seek user interest through an email signup.

Step 3: Lay out the flow and features

Validation of your app idea means that you’ve got something that people want to use. Now is the time to detail your product onto a document, or if you want to go the extra mile, use a wire-framing tool.

When putting your idea down on paper, remember to be as detailed as possible. Include the flow of how the user will navigate the app as well as all the features envisioned. This will help your developer to clearly understand your expectations.

Step 4: Remove non-core features

From the flow and features document you prepared, start looking closely at features that you can remove. Offer only the core value of your app idea. Do not build features in the first version that are "nice to have" and can always be added later as an update. This will help keep the initial costs of development down and also help you get to market quicker.

Step 5: Put design first

I have heard many entrepreneurs saying they want a very basic design and want to focus on just developing an app. They are so wrong! Design is not just about how your app looks, but it’s about how a user will experience the app. Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures best explains it: “Design is a way of making technology useful.” So look for a developer who puts design (user experience and graphics) first.

Check out resources for building your app here...

Step 6: Hire a designer/developer

Seek a development company that has great design talent and a solid development team. While hiring a developer, go online to check on their credibility and the apps that they have created. If you really liked an app they created from their portfolio, chances are, they could be the right one for your product.

Step 7: Create developer accounts

You must register for a developer account with the respective app stores to be able to sell your app through their platform. Google’s Android charges $25 a year and Apple charges $99 annually. You have the option of registering as an individual or as a company, if you already have one formed.

Step 8: Integrate analytics

Analytics help you track downloads, user engagement and retention for your mobile app. Make sure you use tools such as Flurry, which is available for free, and Localytics, that has a free and paid version.

Step 9: Get feedback quickly and improvise

Once your app goes live on the app store, the first set of customers' usage and behavior will give you insight into how to improve and enhance your app. Enhancements and changes are constant, so keep an eye on user feedback and keep building.

Step 10: Introduce features

You built version one with limited features and only the core offering. Now is the time to evaluate and introduce the remaining features that were left out in the initial version. You will know through analytics and feedback whether the features are relevant anymore.


These steps are not sacrosanct, but rather a guideline to building your app in the most effective manner based on my experience. Once you’re ready to start, you must also know that building a mobile app is the easiest part. Getting customers is where the challenge lies.


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10 Social Media Tips for Startups

According to The Social Habit, 42 percent of consumers making a complaint via social media will expect a response within the hour.


This demand for instant attention has led to most business Twitter feeds pushing out "sorry about that" and "please Direct Me your details so I can resolve the issue" tweets almost every minute.

 
To help, we've compiled a list of useful tips to help your startup avoid these common pitfalls while also offering general tips on gaining followers and building brand awareness...

1. Assess your social media channels

 

 

 

Before beginning a social media campaign or reshuffle, it’s vital that you gather all current metrics of your social media channel in order to measure growth, and determine what works and more importantly, what doesn't (and could harm your brand). 


Key metrics worth taking down are followers/likes, clicks on links, mentions/shares, impressions and profile visits.


A weekly and monthly log of changes in these channels is the best way to monitor changes.

2. Respond as quick as possible to negative comments

 

 

 

Understandably, with small teams it's difficult to respond to each comment or tweet as soon as they come in. However, for negative comments the faster the response, the less likely they are to be annoyed (obviously).


Acknowledging the negative comment within an hour is the best was to quickly defuse a potentially brand damaging situation.

3. Don't just promote your own products or services

 

 

 

Your followers don't just want to see shameless promotion, they want interesting discussion, retweets and an insight into 'office life'.


Posting a messages like 'Happy Friday' or asking a topical question could generate much more social attention than a plug for a product. 

4. Use emojis

 

 

 

No one likes to feel like they're talking to a robot.


Social media marketers should show emotion in every tweet, whether it's excitement for a new product or a sincere apology for a glitch in service. 


Emojis are a great way of doing that, although without stating the obvious, don't over do it!

5. Use Hashtag when necessary

 

 

 

As we know, hashtags can open up your tweets to a variety of different groups, people and further social promotion. But 'irresponsible' hash-tagging or hash-tagging every word - is not going to win you any fans; and probably won't make your content to be discovered by the right audience anyway. 

6. Create a social media calendar

 

 

 

 

By creating a calendar of scheduled social posts, you'll be able to figure out which times of day provide the biggest return on your measured key metrics. What's more, a calendar should stop over-posting and posting the same content too many times.  

7. Know when to post

 

As we know, you'll be able to determine the best times to post by using a social media calendar and measuring that against your key metrics. But it's also worth noting that for most business profiles, tweeting or posting on the hour will result in being hidden among the thousands of others that tweet on the hour every hour. 


So opting to tweet at off peak times (for example, 6.03pm or 10.35am) could mean your post miss the rush and will be more visible to your audience. 

8. Direct unhappy customers away from your social page

 

Without being heartless, you don't want your corporate Facebook or Twitter page full of threads trying to resolve issues. To make sure this doesn't happen, startups can create a dedicated social page designed to to deal with customer issues and 'gently' direct them to this page to discuss the issue further. 

9. Create a house style

 

Finding a 'voice' that represents your startup's social presence is a great way of creating the perception of a reliable brand. 


Publishing chatty informal tweets twinned with corporate lingo is confusing and won't result in a loyal following. 


Instead create a best practice guide if there is multiple people tweeting from your accounts so all posts fit the overall message you're promoting.

10. Use paid advertising

 

Most social media channels will offer a paid advertising platform for businesses wanting to grow social reach. You should test the waters first, running small campaigns to see if this is something that will work for your brand and make sure they are specifically targeted for your target audience. 


This could get the ball rolling, but might not be a long term solution for some brands wanting to grow in popularity.


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How to Send Sensitive Information Over Email

Supposing corporate needs your bank's routing and account numbers to get you set up for direct deposits. Or the IT department needs your password to upgrade or modify your account.

That's not the kind of information you typically want to share via email. Or instant message. Or even fax. Ideally, it's the kind of thing you'd write on a sticky note and hand directly to the person who needs it.


Of course, that's not always an option, meaning you need some kind of safe, electronic way to transmit sensitive information.


Enter OneShar.es, which lets you create a secure, self-destructing message for one recipient.


 


It works like this: You click the blue Create One Now button, then type or paste the information you want to share. You can choose to automatically "self-destruct" (i.e. delete) the message if it hasn't been viewed within a designated amount of time -- anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 days.


Next, click Create Link, then copy and paste that link into an email. When the recipient clicks it, he'll gain access to the private message -- an action that also self-destructs the link (meaning no one else can use it).


OneShar.es is free, easy to use, and incredibly handy. Nevertheless, is it secure? According to the OneShar.es About page, the service relies on SSL to encrypt the data between your browser and their servers, and keeps the data encrypted while it's stored. Once your message is viewed, it's deleted from the system.


Granted, there's still no guarantee your data will be kept private and secure, but the same is true of any information you share online. If you have misgivings about using OneShar.es, well, there's always the telephone. Personally, I think it looks like a much safer solution than email or IM.


By the way, if you're an iOS user, the 99-cent OneShar.es app lets you create self-destructing messages on the run.


Have you found a better way to share sensitive data? Tell me about it in the comments.


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Understanding How Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies Work

Introduction and a Lesson in Scarcity

While once a curiosity of the internet, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are considered by some to be the money of the future. However, over the last several years, Bitcoin has certainly had its ups and downs – literally.

• Bitcoin explained: what is Bitcoin?

Cryptocurrency is an attempt to replace money transactions with a digital medium of exchange using peer-to-peer networking. The first decentralized cryptocurrency, and still the most successful, was Bitcoin, which was created in 2009 by the mysterious developer Satoshi Nakamoto, who subsequently left the project in late 2010.

 Virtual money, real impact

 

The idea is that you use cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money, rather than relying on central authorities.
Since the success of Bitcoin, there have been over 3,000 other virtual currencies introduced with varying degrees of success and popularity such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and Dash. There have even been crowdfunded cryptocurrencies such as Lisk.


Many other cryptocurrencies have just died because of lack of interest, and the simple fact that no one used them. Non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies are collectively known as altcoins and they are more or less based on the same idea of a decentralized digital medium for exchange.


Their success depends on how much ‘cash’ (the total value of transactions) they have sloshing about the peer-to-peer network (i.e. the virtual economy). Since Bitcoin is open source, anyone can develop their own cryptocurrency using the same technology.

A short lesson in scarcity

 

Bitcoins derive their value partly through their scarcity, which is defined by a cryptographic lottery. You can buy Bitcoins on online cryptocurrency exchanges or you can earn them through a process known as ‘mining’.


Bitcoin mining programs compute an encryption function called a hash on a set of random numbers. Coins are awarded to whichever miner happens to compute a number below a certain threshold.
Originally, Bitcoin mining was handled by standard PCs with powerful graphics cards, but as the hash difficulty has increased, the preferred method to mine Bitcoins is to employ a Bitcoin ASIC, a chip that has been designed specifically for this task. However, with the higher value of cryptocurrency – in particular Ethereum – and recent advances in GPU processing power, miners have once again been turning to graphics cards for mining.


This lottery favors those with the biggest and fastest machines, and currently there are about 17 million Bitcoins in circulation. Note that the total number of Bitcoins in (virtual) circulation will never exceed 21 million because of the way the system was designed.


As the Bitcoin network gets bigger, the hash gets more complex, and miners get fewer Bitcoins for their trouble, hence they always need better hardware and higher Bitcoin prices to make it worthwhile.


As a currency, Bitcoin is still a niche market. However, multiple established retailers accept it as payment including Overstock, Expedia, Newegg and the Dish Network.


Since Bitcoins can be spent on the internet without the use of a bank account, they offer a convenient system for anonymous purchases, which also makes it possible to launder money and buy illegal products. Since there is no money stored anywhere, accounts can't be frozen by police or PayPal administrators.

Business Suitability and Bitcoin's Future

Ideal for small transactions?

Bitcoin was once regarded as an ideal system for small electronic payments – so-called micropayments – as it is difficult to transmit small amounts of currency efficiently with existing systems. Credit card fees, also known as swipe fees, can often exceed the value of the purchase, making this costly for retailers. However, Bitcoins increased transaction fees have proved to be a barrier preventing it making inroads into the world of micropayments.


Another problem with Bitcoin is the volatility of its value which exceeds the volatility of other currencies and gold, resulting in huge fluctuations in comparison to the US dollar. In 2013, the value of Bitcoin went from $10 to over $1,000! Because its supply is ultimately limited, prices will need to vary to accommodate shifts in demand, not the other way round. Unlike gold, Bitcoin has no intrinsic value from alternative uses that could anchor its price.

Not fit for business?

As a currency, Bitcoin is not stable enough for most businesses. The value of a Bitcoin fluctuates dramatically and because there are no controls there is nothing to stop money vanishing if the price tanks.



Bitcoin payment processors offer a way of getting around this problem, as they convert the transaction to hard currency almost instantaneously. Many companies want regulation to provide them with some security and protect them from potential big losses on the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin's future

 

There are some signs that governments are starting to look at regulations and this is clearly proving difficult.
All these factors are significant barriers which are diminishing Bitcoin’s chances of becoming a more widespread and popular currency. Bitcoin's market capitalization currently stands at about $74.5 billion (around £55 billion).


Previously, Goldman Sachs has said that it was more plausible that Bitcoin could have a significant impact in terms of its innovation on payments technology, "by forcing existing players to adapt to it or co-opt it."
However, the Goldman Sachs report also said that Bitcoin's ‘biggest hurdle’ will be maintaining its cost advantage in the face of greater regulation, higher operating costs, and competition from entrenched players.


Fitch Ratings came to a similar conclusion and found that Bitcoin stands to lose much of its appeal if Bitcoin companies are forced to deal with the added cost of regulation, rendering the near friction-less Bitcoin network much less cost-effective than it is today.


In 2017, Bitcoin has been on the rise again, with prices per coin hitting $4,500 (£3,300). This has been fuelled by Chinese buying of the cryptocurrency.


It seems that the sheer success of Bitcoin which has seen it leap from being a shadowy entity to an all-star affair overnight has also hurt its long-term viability. It remains to be seen if Bitcoin can move beyond its niche to gain wider acceptance, and for the time being the cryptocurrency remains quite volatile, and a gamble to investors that has been likened to the tech bubble of the 1990s.

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