Top 3 ways to make money during COVID-19…

What’s up NewGen family! Man I don’t even know where to start, this whole entire year has just been crazy beyond comprehension. In my personal opinion biblical. Rumors of wars, the passing of Kobe Bryant (Rest in peace), COVID-19, and now a damn race war… Man I think it’s safe to say we need the remote from Adam Sandler and click to 2021! Never the less, today we’re here to talk about the top 3 ways to create income right now during this pandemic. Since millions on millions of people have lost their jobs and now collecting unemployment, making money right now is definitely more challenging now more than ever. With that being said let’s go ahead and dive right into today’s blog topic.

 

E-commerce/Dropshipping:

Now I’m starting off with this one is because we are in a time now where the shift is happening. Two years ago along my journey of learning dropshipping and going through the phases of creating, failing and doing over again, one thing that kept me going is that I knew that major department stores are going out of business and its due to people are shopping online. Stores like Toys R us, JC Penny, Sears, etc… are seeing their revelation of their companies, that was two years ago. Now, 2020 with the pandemic has pretty much headshot all of these businesses and many more. With majority of the world still under quarantine, everyone is on the internet now more than ever. More people on the internet means more online shopping.

Between 2020 to 2025, E-com/Dropshipping will dominate because, department stores are dying (or at least on life support). So what are the steps of building my first E-com/dropshipping store? Well it’s simple:

• Find a product
• Create an online store around the product
•  Create/run ads to your store
•  Start generating sales

Now of course there’s WAY more that goes into it, but this is just the basis of it. I personally recommend using Shopify when you’re creating your store, because it’s beginner friendly and they give you different tips and tricks to create and achieve your first successful E-commerce website. Right now they’re having a 14-day free so I highly recommend hoping on this opportunity especially at it’s beginning stages. Click here to get started! For more info on E-commerce/dropshipping check out my post, “Key tips you need to know when starting a Shopify store…” for more in-depth explanation.

 

Social Media Marketing Agency:

Now this is for the people who don’t necessarily want to deal with the responsibilities of running an E-commerce brand/dropshipping branded store. A lot of these physical businesses such as restaurants, dental offices, etc… the owners of those businesses for the most part are leaving a huge chunk of money on the table simply because they don’t know how to take advantage of the internet (Or in all honesty are just too f***king lazy to learn) that’s where you come in!

So what exactly do you do to get started? Well first learn how to market. My personal advice, take 2-3 weeks aside and actually learn Facebook ads/Google AdWords because that is the most crucial part of being able to do this. What exactly will you be doing? As a social media marketer, you’ll be creating/taking over the client’s social medias for their business and you will be running ads and you’ll be bringing traffic (potential customers) towards their business which will put more money in their pockets.

The more clients you take on and provide good results, the more money you’ll make. Now how do you get paid from doing this and do you have to use your own money? In the beginning you want to provide value ( a test run) to your client and show them that you’re worth the extra investment. You know when you’re in the mall and you walk past the food court and you got the people handing out free samples of their food. Well it’s the same concept. Give them a taste and if they like, you can write up a contract and they’ll give you a budget to utilize to grow their business. You can easily make an extra $1,500-$3,000 a month per client. Imagine having 4-5 clients paying you $1,500 a month, you do the math. For more info about SMMA check out this video by Kevin David for a more in-depth overview.

 

Print on Demand:

Now this is a unique take on making money online because, this isn’t talked about too much.  For all of my creatives out there this opportunity and the time we’re in right now is GOLDEN! Especially with COVID-19 most shipping times for online businesses are extremely pushed back and may be a good minute before they go back to normal. So what exactly is P.O.D ? It’s pretty much similar to dropshipping, but instead of already made products, you’re creating the designs. That’s right, YOU!

Clothing, accessories, phone cases, necklaces, etc… you’ll be creating the designs via photoshop. Afterwards, the fulfillment center manufactures it and sends it to your customers. Fun fact, my clothing line (01 Vision) started off as an P.O.D but will very soon become an actual clothing retailer. So what’s a good P.O.D company to go through? Me personally I use Printful. Very reliable, tons of different items to customize, fast shipping, great customer service, been using them now for 2+ years now.

Now how would you market this? I actually recommend using Instagram influencers, but of course do a lot of research on Instagram influencers before reaching out to them and utilizing their platform. They’re essentially cheaper then using Facebook ads if done right. $100 on the right IG influencer can bring in mad weight and build data so when you start using Facebook ads, you already have a head start.

 

In conclusion…

We are only 6 months into 2020 and as you can see a lot can happen in a mere 6 months. This pandemic will either do two things to you and that’s either make you more lazier than you already were or bring out that inner hustler in you. With all the bars, malls, clubs, etc… closed, you literally have nothing but time to invest in yourself and be a better version of yourself by the time this pandemic passes. Getcha ass up and get at it, no excuses! Y’all stay safe out here, especially if you’re protesting in the streets. Much love! New blogs coming this week.

How to utilize Facebook ads part 2…

So I’m extending the How to utilize Facebook ads into two parts, because it’s a slue of information that if I literally type it out all in one blog post you’d be reading for hours and I want to make sure you grasp every aspect to this in a well thought out manner. Last time I went over the different categories on ad sets such as PPE, ATC, VC-PP and how to utilize your pixel code to track your traffic in order to study your data. Today I’m gonna go over how to set up your audience and how to target/retarget your audience in order to make sure you’re not wasting your money on audience that don’t give two shits about your product or service.

 

Audience insights

So they’re many factors in your advertising, but one of the key factors is picking your right audience. People who are already interested or have shown interest in what your selling. Now in order to do that you got to know how to pick that out and that’s what leads up to audience insights. Audience insights is a tool that Facebook incorporates inside your ads manager in order to help set up a custom audience you can sell to.

So go inside your ads manager and then click the top left corner where it says “ads manager” and under “Plan” click audience insights. Once you’ve clicked it it’ll give you two options, “Connect to everyone on Facebook” or “Connect to the people that’ve already connected with your Facebook”. Click the first option and now you’re in audience insights. The benefit in this is that you can create multiple audiences that you can test to see what your winner is.

In here you can tailor your audience by their demographics, the pages they’ve liked, where they live and how active they are. Remember the name of the game is to take that 150-200 million people and shrink it no bigger than 1.5milliom people but no lower than 250,000 people. You need a audience size that’s between those numbers so not only will it not get saturated quickly, but you’ll be able to scale if that audience likes your product. For example lets say I’m selling a streetwear T-shirt and I want to put that shirt in front of people that love streetwear. First I would see what states are more into that sort of fashion and then add them in.

Afterwards I would check the age and gender to see if my product fits more with boys or girls and the age group that would relate to this product more. After that I would then list off the things in common(interests) this shirt has, like Supreme, Bape, Stussy, Obey, etc… anything that involves streetwear in order to grasp those fans and put this shirt in front of them. When that is done I could either go with the audience size I have now or narrow down even further to see if I can get my audience size a bit more specific. At that point I could list off everything from what education level, type of work they do and many more. Once I’ve got all of my information I then save the audience and then utilize for my ad post.

This will help you when it comes to targeting your key audience because these people will be your fans, the people who will keep buying from you and see your brand at least once a day. If you can master creating effective audiences you will be on fire simple because that’s one of the make or break components you need to make it.

 

Targeting/Retargeting your audience  

Now this for the people who are getting ready to scale and this is also for the people who have gathered enough data from their previous ad from a cold audience(cold traffic). Once you’ve gotten this far, you’re ready to see results for what you’re promoting. So you have two different types of audiences such the following:

• Look alike audience
• Custom audience

Both do different things. With a look alike audience you can reach new people who are similar to audiences you already care about. You can create a lookalike audience based on people who like your page, conversion pixels or any of your existing Custom Audiences. With a custom audience you can connect with the people who have already shown an interest in your business or product with Custom Audiences. You can create an audience from your customer contacts, website traffic or mobile app. Depending on where you’re at with your ad will determine which one you will utilize in order to move on to the next level.

When creating a look custom audience all you need is 100 conversions of either of the following;

• Page View
• View content
• Initiate checkout
• Purchase
• Add to cart
• Add payment info
• Search

And out off these 100 conversions you can create a custom audience and Facebook will go out and find people who are likely to do what ever option you select. With a look alike audience you can literally take the custom audience and put it in the lookalike source and Facebook will go and find 1million to 10 million people who look like the audience you’ve gathered. That’s right I said it, 1-10 million people! Scaling is going to be something vicious when you’ve finally reached that point. This is how most businesses and brands are able to make 6-7 figures a month and are continuously able to do this.

Once you’ve studied part 1 of utilizing Facebook and grasp it you’ll be able to take this and have a really great sense of direction. Now remember there’s no one really right way to do this, it’s like the saying “There’s more than 1 way to skin a cat.” there’s many ways to become successful with Facebook ads, but you will have to test and find your methods and see what works best for you. Once you’ve find it, keep doing it over and over until you reached higher levels of success in your business. I hope this information helps you on your journey in the jungle of Facebook advertisement!

How to utilize Facebook ads…

Hey what’s up y ‘all! Today I’m going to give a small tutorial on how to use Facebook ads. I’m going over everything from the pixel, the different choices you can pick from for certain task and a few other things as well. If you don’t feel like paying for a course or just don’t have the money to purchase one at the moment here’s a little freebee that can at least put on the right track. So make sure you pay attention to what I give out today.

 

Categories of Facebook ads…

So at first Facebook ads can seem a bit imitating but in reality once you have basic knowledge of where to go it becomes easier to understand and use. Fair warning though I advise you to have at least $150-$500 saved when you’re starting, because you will be doing a lot of testing and Facebook is a game of patience so I hope you have some as well.

So here are the different categories of Facebook ads;

• PPE(Page post engagement)
• LC(Link clicks)
• VC(View content)
• ATC(Add to cart)
• PP(Purchase pixel)

The game is to have a product or a service that can get through all of these successfully in order to start the scaling process which is where you will see the real money coming in. So now I’m about to start going over individually going over what the purpose of each category and the benefit from using it. Another disclaimer, there’s really no set way to truly do this, many people have their own methods all I’m doing is just giving you a sense of direction and what ever you want to add on to it is completely up to you.

 

PPE(Page post engagement)

So post engagements are meant for two things. One is to test to see if people would like the product/service you’re selling and the second reason is for social proof. When you do this first make sure you have a fan page(business page, same shit) and that you use a existing post because in your ads manager the likes, comments and shares will be shown on that post so when reuse it for any other categories you’ll have that social proof already in hand. Let me ask you a question from a consumers perspective, would you trust a advertisement that only had 10 likes and 1 comment or would you’d be more incline to the advertisement that has thousands of likes, hundreds of comments and shares? Exactly.

So when you do this, let the ad run for 3-5 days. You have to understand that Facebook optimization actually needs 7 days to work effectively, but by the 3rd-4th day you’ll be able to tell if it’s a hit or miss. Another way to tell if your ad is doing good is looking at the CPE(cost per engagement)and if it’s 0.04 and lower than you have the green light to proceed to the next category of the process. Now after three days if your CPE is above 0.10-0.15 kill the ad and try a different approach. –What if I don’t get any sales? That’s fine. You see Facebook will give exactly what you ask for. You optimize for post engagements, it’s algorithm will give you engagements and nothing more. If you just so happen to get a sale or two then obviously people like what you’re selling, but it’s still cool if you don’t get sales.

 

LC(Link clicks)

So this the next level for the process. Now once you’ve ruled that your product/service is doing good now you can optimize for link clicks. Now if your product is good and you already have the social proof you’re going to get a lot of link clicks and even more social proof(likes, comments, shares). Now Facebook needs 50 conversions a week in order to optimize properly. So as long as you’re getting that 50 a week you’re on the right path. For most people who make it this far you’ll hit that honestly within 2-3 days if your product is good. If it’s great it’ll be within a day, at the point let it run for 3-5 days and see if it’s still good you can move on to the step. You might also get sales in this level as well, but even if you don’t it still not a red flag.

 

VC(View content)

Now this is where part of the fun begins! With view content now you’re in the battlefield to see if you’re going to go the next levels or not. With view content, Facebook will look for people who will click your link and actually look at what your offering. Now just as link clicks you need 50 conversions a week for it to optimize properly, but now it’s a game of how many add to carts you’re getting or sign ups(if your doing affiliate marketing). A good way to tell to level up is if you’re ready to level up is the amount you’re getting. So 20-40 add to carts with like 3-5 sales is a good indicator to level up.

–What if I’m still not getting sales? Then I’d recommend looking at the CPVC(cost per view content) if it’s reaching anything over 0.25-0.30 kill the ad, but don’t kill it too early give it bout a week at the latest. If you’re getting sales then go ahead and move to the next level because you’re literally almost at the finish line.

 

ATC(Add to cart)

So if you’re here that means your product is good maybe even great and you’re getting a lot of add to carts with the minor sales you’re receiving. Now at this point Facebook is looking for people who tend to add to cart a lot when shopping online. So that means you’re bout to be bombarded with ATCs. When you’re getting about 50-60 add to carts with like 15-20 sales you’re in the green zone and you should keep going. Remember the name of the game is seasoning your pixel so it can become smart because, believe it or not it will come a time where you’ll have soo many sales tracked by your pixel that you won’t need to keep doing this method. You’ll be able to the purchase pixel off back and start generating sales.

 

PP(Purchase pixel)

Now it’s called purchase, but I just call it purchase pixel just cause honestly. Anyway, you should only be using this category when you’ve reached a certain amount of ATCs and sales which is around 50-60 ATC with 15-20 sales. Some people say start out with the PP off rip and in some cases that has worked, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that off a brand new pixel. You’ll just be wasting a lot of money to be honest unless you got the bread like that off rip. The only time I recommend going straight to the purchase pixel is when you have a few thousand orders(2,000-3,000) simply because your pixel is smart at that point and it’ll already know where to look without any actual help from the categories. Once you’ve completed this step and your product is thriving now you’re ready to scale and that’s where the fun begins for real!

 

Pixel code

Now this is the final thing I’m going to go over, it doesn’t need much explaining, but this is the make or break of your business right here. So when you’ve built your ad manager before you run any ads you need to set up your pixel code in your store. This code will track everybody who has been on your shop, added products to your cart, purchases, the list goes on, but this is fundamental that you do this first before running any ads so Facebook can gather all the information that you can utilize. Season it and watch it work wonders for you.

 

In conclusion…

Now there’s a lot more that goes into this like targeting, audiences, and many more, but today I just wanted to give you a simple run down/path that you can take in order to get you going. Now of course learning Facebook ads won’t be no overnight thing because it’s a process and you’ll make a lot mistakes and a lot of testing, but once you get it and understand how everything works you’ll be in the land of green pastures and by pastures I mean money. Hope this was helpful for you!

 

 

How to improve your salesmen skills…

Now who in here was born with stupendious talking skills? What about high cofindence and having the ability not to take no for an answer? If you said yes, go look in the mirror because your nose looks longer than usual. Most of us weren’t born with the ability to sale things to people nether the less talk to people. Now in my case I’m a extroverted person so I don’t mind stepping out of my comfort zone to engage with people especially when it came down to me working retail. My first job was Footlocker & not just any Footlocker, the best one in our region. So you could imagine how that went in a nutshell.

The reason why I’m saying this is because what I’m going to be teaching about today will be focused on improving your salesmen skills. No you don’t have to have experience to learn or master this. It does take practice though. By the way, this skill set can be applied on online or in person and in any business setting. This will definietly be good for people who would much rather sale online than in person because people can really be annoying, but amazing at the same time. Trust me… Worked retail for two years, I could go into stories, but thats for another day.

 

Value. 

Now lets get into the meat and potatoes of this shall we? One thing about being a great salesmen is knowing one, what is the value of the product you are selling to the set audience? You need to know the ins and outs of your product so you can show other people why they should invest their hard earned money into what you’ve created or promoting. I preach this a lot especially in my older blogs and I’m going to say it again, you have to provide value and the money will come behind it. If your soul purpose is to promote or create something stickly for money than you will have a hard time making sales or you might not make shit at all to be honest.

Let me explain how most people react to someone promoting/advertising a product. Remember people are selfish, most people will ask to themselves, “What’s in it for me?” Or “How does this benefit me?” You as the salesmen need to make sure that you know your product like the back of your hand. If you sale watches you need to know how the watch is crafted, what materials are used to make it, how would it make the customer’s outfit look better with such a small subtle piece. Back when I was working at Footlocker I had already knew a little bit about shoes, but that job forced me to do research on my own and learn my history on the brands so when customers throw a million f*cking questions at me I would always be prepaired. If the customer can’t find value in what you’re selling they will keep on about their business and not pay you any mind. So first study your product and find the core values of what you’re selling is step one to this equation.

 

Pain.

Now when I say pain no I don’t mean go get a bat and hit yourself or customer(unless they’re being a complete ass then by all means get a swing in for me as well)but, pain is also another key driver for sales. Think about it, when you want to buy a car. You’ve been searching multiple lots and can’t seem to find the car you want at the right price. Then one day you find the right car, but the price is too high. So you’re force to search again and again until finally you end up buying at a dealer who gives you a discounted price that no one else is willing to give. You want to know why that dealer ended up getting a sale? Not only because he gave the customer a discounted price, the dealer struck a pain spot in the customer’s dilemma. The customer coudln’t find the right car, but once they did they couldn’t find the right price until that spot was struck.

You see you gotta understand that pain will ignite any way out. When people are mad, sad, sometimes maybe depressed or desperate they’ll shop. Prime example, the “make money” niche. Why is that niche soo powerful? Is because people are trying to find ways to make a passive source of income to either get them out of their cycle with bills or to supplement their struggling income. You as the salesmen can point out that the customer needs a way of extra income and when you’ve hit that pressure point of that customer they’ll buy any course, training, ebook, etc… That you’ve created or promoted. Point out the painful points that the customer is having and provide the solution to that problem is the second step of the equation.

 

Pleasure.

Now once you’ve mastered this and the previous two points, It doesn’t matter if you don’t even work a sales job in your entire life you can hop on the internet and absolutley destroy this game of sales and marketing. Pleasure comes when people with money have a specifc need that needs to be accomplished. Example, Lets say you and your lover(if you’re single it’s cool join the club, we got cookies and taco tuesdays)are getting ready to go on a trip. You need a airline to go through, a hotel, a rental car and most importantly a LOT of travel locations, beaches and hotspots to visit.

There’s a vast audience of people who are looking for adventures and have the money to spend to make sure all of the essentials are in place. Pleasure is what gives you ability to relax and enjoy the now moments of your life. If you want a more specific example… Condoms… The reason why Trojan condoms according to forbes makes around 450 million dollars a year is because people want to engage in sexual activity, but they make sure they are protected when engaging in pleasurable activities. Key word “Pleasure”, which is a HUGE niche that many marketers don’t really grasp. Find out what gives people pleasure and make sure that your product is with accordance with that audience is the final step to the equation.

 

In conclusion…

If you take time and carefully yet deligently study V.P.P and put it to use either in the world of retail, sales, online business, etc… It won’t matter if you didn’t get a college level education on sales or you don’t have any previous experience in the sales world, you will always out sale any “seasoned” salemen and you’ll be able to find and sale any product that you find.