Today I started the trading intangibles unit and finished the business model lesson. There are three main business models, subscriptions, freemium and recurring sales. For the subscription model, people pay a cost that can be recurring to access your content. For the freenium model, you give people some features of your product, but not all, incentivizing them to pay for the full product. For the recurring sales model, you get clients to buy your products.
You can also buy domain or website names and sell them for a profit. They might become valuable later on and you can make a great profit, however it may take a long time. You can also trade cards such as Magic and steam cards. Cryptocurrency acts like stock and you can use the same principles as the stock market. It can be very volatile however.
You can also develop a brand new brand or product. You can then copyright it and people who use your product/brand will have to pay you money. You can also patent it.
Today I finished the selling and creating digital assets part of the selling digital goods unit. You can create AR filters on instagram and snapchat that can be sold. You can also advertise products as paid promotion.
To get people to buy your products, you have to market. One way to do this is through emails. You can add popups and ads on websites to get people to join your subscriber or email list. You can also have a referral program that rewards people for sharing your product or website.
Another method is to buy ads on facebook, google or other websites. You have to find websites that give you the greatest cost per price. You can do this through metrics such as clicks, total site traffic, impressions and page values.
You also need to prefect your sales funnel. A sales funnel allows for a new person to become a customer. You have to attract them by bringing up emotional appeal and be persuasive. Making the sale is often the last part of the funnel.
You can also create subscriptions to websites
Today I learned about other methods to create goods to sell online.
Podcasts are audio only talk shows. They can be done by a single person or with co-hosts. To start a podcast, you have to find a topic and a structure. You then have to record your podcast with a good quality microphone and software that would let you edit and add elements. You then have to advertise your podcast through your cover, calls to action, etc. You then post your podcast on various media websites such as spotify or itunes
You can also create stock photos. These are photographs and pictures that people can use for their own purposes for money. You have to choose images that are striking and interesting to attract customers. You can then upload these images to sites that charge for the photographs, making you a profit
You can also create video game assets. These are part of your games that other developers can use. You can sell them on marketplaces such as unity.
You can also sell templates for others on wordpress, which you can also sell on marketplaces.
Today I finished the video editing assignment and created a video.
I then started the selling digital goods. There are many services or products you can sell online. These include e-books, webinars, courses, podcasts, media, games and filters.
To create an e-book you have to write a book then publish it. There are many services that can do this for you such as Amazon, Blurb and Lulu
A webinar is a seminar that is hosted online. They often teach an audience essential skills or help them develop those skills. To have a successful webinar, you have to establish yourself and your knowledge. There are many webinar features you can incorporate such as a chat, recording, screen sharing and polls.
You can also create an online course. To create a good online course, you have to have your learner more involved. This can be done through engaging, satisfying lessons, and an easy to learn structure.
Today I finished the video editing unit and started the assignment. To become a freelance editor, you have to find clients. There are three ways to do this. You can cold call, provide free services or use connections. When you are cold calling you have to seem like you are the best candidate. For this you have to present your uniqueness, your talents, and why you are the best fit. If you are hired you want to maintain the relationship with your client. You have to be friendly, helpful and make sure that you can use that client to boost your career. You then have to set a price for your work. The price depends on three factors, your client, the amount of effort required and how you are being paid. You can be paid hourly, per minute footage or upfront.
To get work, you have to have a portfolio. This can be a compilation of your best clips or videos you have done in the past.
My plan for my assignment is to create a voice over about how education can reduce poverty. I've downloaded the software and have already created free clips and statistics.
Today I started the video editing unit. A video editor is a person who puts together clips to create visual media. They are responsible for the sound design, cutting and transitions out of raw footage to create a film or video. The two types of video editors are freelancers and staff. Freelances often do not belong to company and take work when they chose to. This makes their source of income more inconsistent. However, they gain more freedom and there is less of a barrier to entry. An editor who is part of a company has a more secure job, but is giving up freedom and the industry is harder to break into.
To become a video editor, you need a lot of different equipment and software. There are free options available. These items include editing software, hard drives, a computer/laptop, raw footage and media, gear and good headphones.
To become a good editor, you have to have a good sense of your audience and a drive. You have to trust the process and yourself and know who you are catering to. Creating a process you know is crucial to being consistent. In order to create a successful film, you have to have a correct color combination, with high quality sound and images. Cuts and transitions also help the flow of your film, making it more fluid. Everybody has a different style so you should observe what other successful film makers do and try to incorporate it into your own work while still keeping your defining features.
There are many different video editors, some of which can be very expensive. These include Premier Pro, DaVinci and Final Cut. Free alternatives include Hitfilm Express, VSDC, Lightworks, Shotcut and DaVinci Resolve.
Today I made progress on the providing services unit. There are many ways to provide service online. This includes digital marketing, data entry, survey/paid research jobs, public relations/press release jobs, helping with SEO, helping with ad campaigns, voice acting, selling art, modeling and design. Many of these jobs do not require a significant amount of higher education, if not at all. For example, with survey jobs, you just need to show up and answer honestly. Modeling and art requires you to be talented or smart. You can obviously create your own art and sell it or you can make profit off of selling art. It does not require a degree to do so. With public relation and ad campaigns, you need to know how the public mind works and your client's brand. You need to be able to make your client seem as popular, smart or charming as possible. Voice acting requires training.
In order to develop a product, there needs to be carefully planned out stages. There are many different forms of frameworks to help with this like RICE and KANO. You want to create a minimally viable and marketable product that you can improve upon and get investors onboard. After that you can start fully developing the product for release. During the development process, you should be testing in every step and communicating between management and your team. You need to market your product in a way that attracts people and there is a demand for. You can appeal to emotions by telling a story, helping your team and customers connect and support the product more. I then finished the assignment.
I tried the web development unit. It is about front and back end engineers creating and managing a website, using CSS, JavaScript and HTML.
I also tried the providing services unit. You can write for websites and blogs. You can also tutor people on zoom.
Today I finished the QA assignment.
I then started the product manager unit. The product manager us normally a single person that leads the development of a new product. They communicate with their team, people in leadership positions and the customers. The lifecycle of a product is normally the discovery, planning and execution phases. When the product is created, the product manager tends to stay with their team so they can further support and develop the product. They generally do this through interacting with customers. They create surveys, call people. test and conduct interviews.
Surveys tend to be short and consist of yes/no questions. They just are used to see the customers' overall thoughts on the product Live interviews are generally longer and involve in depth thoughts. Some surveys will also ask customers to test products.
Today I finished the AI unit. There are 6 different types of artificial intelligence. They are machine learning, neural network, robotics, expert systems, fuzzy logic and natural language processing. The most well known is machine learning, which allows a program to learn by itself, without human intervention. Things like search engines use machine learning to give you the best tailored results. Another well known field is robotics, which creates robots that can preform various tasks, replacing humans in many different places.
Algorithms are codes for computers that help them with their jobs. To make an algorithm, python is a language that can help you create one. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a form of AI that specializes in languages, such as translation and spelling. Translators such as Google Translate and helpers such as Siri all use NLP. Many companies are looking at AI to automate their processes and many startups create and sell technology.
When you are a recruiter, your job is to find new employees for a company. You can be under a contingency search contract or an exclusive search contract. In a contingency contract, there are multiple parties that are recruiting people for a company and there is competition. In an exclusive search contract, you are the only ones hired to find new employees. To find new employees, you can use social media or recommendations from employees at the company or online. To be a recruiter. you must be reliable and have good networking and communication skills. To find the best person, you must look for good traits, such as the effort they put into their looks, profile and application letters. You can also hire people through interviews online or via phone calls.
Since there are many applications, some employers use ATS, or applicant tracking systems. This software sorts out applications using keywords and can weed out good and bad candidates, thus reducing the time needed to find new people. Once you find a candidate, you need to create a contract with them and inform the company that you found them.
I learned how to become a business analyst and data analyst. A business analyst can be an internal or external person who creates strategies to make the business more successful. There are many certifications that you can earn, depending on how many years you have been in the industry for. These include the CCBA and CBOA. They create a link between the shareholders and the company. They create structures and have meeting with shareholders. They use many applications to help make data easy to look at and simplified.
Data analysts take the data from a company and make conclusions from it. They need to structure the data and be good at statistics. They create codes and programs to help organize data into charts, tables and infographics. Data scientists make a turn a massive amount of data into charts and tables which help predict the future of the company based on past trends.
Today I started and finished the quality assurance unit and started the business analyst unit. The quality assurance unit in a company is responsible for making sure a product is worth to ship. During the creation phase, they test the program and its features, trying to weed out imperfections and glitches. With every significant update, they test it. Before it is shipped, QA tests the product. They test if it's compatible on all devices, browsers and operating systems. They also make sure it is easy to use and fast. Sometimes there are accessibility features, which QA has to test as well.
They also test the amount of stress the system can take by purposely overloading it. This allows the testers to see how it will preform at peak times. The load test will see how it preforms normally. They also need to make sure each part is working by checking them individually. They also test the security, making sure hackers or others with malicious intent cannot access important data and programs.
There are many factors needed when creating a website, especially one that is profitable. You need to create a domain name. There are many different websites to buy from such as GoDaddy and namecheap. You then need to apply for an SSL which makes your website more secure and safe for customers. Instead of building your own website, you can also use wordpress. Wordpress allows you to manage and create your own website. There are many different themes and features of wordpress that makes creating a website a lot easier than creating one from scratch. You then need to optimize your website so that it is higher up on search engines. You do this buy making your website faster, having more keywords and creating better titles that correlate more with your topic.
To make money off of your website, you can use ads, which depend on traffic. When users click on ads, you get money. You can also keep an email subscriber list where you email people who sign up. Then you can sell them products or make money off of affiliate links you send them.
I finished the writing unit through the transcription and grant writing lessons. Transcription is writing things in a different format, for example you may subtitle languages or copy a physical document onto a pdf. Grant writing is tougher as you need to follow very specific guidelines. There are often word limits and you need to be able to present your problem and solution within a few hundred words.
On the grant writing lesson, I took the redirect to the fundraising unit. Here, I learned how to get donors and appeal to them, leading them to donate money to your cease. You need to pitch a problem and solution to them. When cold calling or emailing, you need to have a good hook that captures them. Your appeal should have background info on your company and its cause, then presenting a way the possible donor can solve this problem. After you get in contact with someone, you want to consistently remain in touch with them, without being too annoying or pestering them for money. You need to create a strong relationship with them, which can take months.
I learned about the other forms of writing that can net you income online.
Copywriting is written marketing. Copywriters help advertise and sale products for whomever they are working for. They need to be clear and concise while encouraging and allowing for customers to buy products. They need to be convincing.
Blogging are articles you write. You can either write for your own website or others. The types of blogs include niches, lifestyle, passion, or personal blog. You make money through advertisements
Ghost writing is when you write for somebody else without putting your name on it. Rather, the person you are writing for takes full credit.
Search engine optimization are ways to have your blogs be more visible. It uses key words to help put your blogs or website closer to the front page of search engines, increasing traffic.
Customer service is helping customers with problems or questions. You need to maintain a respectful tone and help be clear. You should not write too much as it may lead to misunderstandings, but you still need to provide necessary information.
Technical writing is writing clear detailed descriptions for manuals, specifications and guides. You need to be able to convey things that anyone would understand. You also need to have significant knowledge when writing.
I finished the stocks unit by doing the commodities lesson. Commodities are raw materials often used in manufacturing. This could be ores or something like oil. Crops can also be considered commodities. Since they are so crucial, they are not affected by inflation. The markets can be very volatile. They are often subjected to scams are there are a lot of bubbles.
I then started the writing unit. You can choose to write for a magazine or you can publish/self-publish your own novel. When you write for magazines, you don't have to have significant education. You have to appeal to readers and you should write about things you are passionate about. Journals need to be scientific and peer reviewed.
When you publish a novel, your team will help you edit your work, advertise your work and help sell your work. When you self publish, you should only hire an editor. It is much harder to break through but you earn more money.
Today I did the options trading unit. There is a lot of terminology and strategy with options trading. Options are rights to purchase stocks at a later date at a fixed price. You do not own any stock when you buy options. One of the most important terms is the strike price, which is the set amount you are paying for the stock within a certain timeframe. A call is when the buyer agrees to buy a stock at a certain amount of time. You want the company's stock to rise so you can buy it for cheaper. With a put option, you have a right to sell it. You want the company's stock to decrease so you can sell it for more. There are four strategies for option trading, selling put spreads, selling iron condors, covered calls and long strangle. The long strangle consists of buying an almost equal amount of calls and puts. The Greek terms are used to describe the level of risk associated with options trading. These are delta, theta, gamma, vega and rho.
Long calls bet that a stock will increase over time. You can make an infinite amount of money depending on how long you are willing to hold out for. A short call is where you sell a call option, betting that the call option will decrease. If you bet wrong however, you have to pay for the option at a higher price, leading to you losing money. A short put bets on price increases and selling it to buyers. You make the premium but can lose an unlimited amount. A long put bets that a stock's price will decrease. Both loses and profits are capped at the premium.
Today I started learning about the different methods of day trading. There are many options such as cryptocurrency, forex and REITs. The major traded cryptocurrencies are Ethereum and Bitcoin. Both are very volatile in price and fluctuate. You can mine and trade parts of cryptocurrency. They offer anomality and security from inflation.
Forex is the trading of different currencies to make a profit using their chaining values. Many apps such as trading game help you improve at this. To trade currencies, you buy when the ratio of one currency to another is lower, such as 1:5, and then you sell when the converted currency raises in price. If you sell when it is 1:5.5, you profit that .5. You can trade currencies at any time of the day unlike the stock market. There are different styles of trading. You can either sell instantly for a small profit or you can hold our for months to make a bigger profit.
I finished the Entrepreneurship & Business Leadership introductory unit. I watched the videos on sales/clients. Here, the goal is to be convincing and not give up too much information when dealing with clients. You want to know about your client and what they are so you can appeal to them more easily. To make a sales pitch, you have to be concise and confident. Many people will not listen to long speeches so you have to strike at them. When you want to hire people, you need to find someone that will pull their weight. As you lead a team, you have to choose a style and stick with it. You cannot change your style consistently. I then did the assignment was to create an executive summary.
I then started on the stocks and crypto unit. Stocks are essentially pieces of companies that are sold to raise money. There are a lot of terms and phrases you need to know. The key ones include the names of different types of trades, and orders. The stock market in the United States is dominated by the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. Many of the top companies are listed on these 2 exchanges. Robinhood is a company that appeals to younger people. They are a trading marketplace. They free stocks to new customers and do not charge fees. They also allow for cryptocurrency trading.
I learned about the executive summary and what it contains. It is a short summary of the business' operation plans and goals. It is meant to be short, simple and concise. It describes your business and provides key information on it. It describes why you would use the business and its goals. It gives a quick description of its financials and its business and revenue models. It also gives the plans for expansion for the future and what it curranty has. It details key leadership positions and risks to the business. Basically, the executive summary gives a brief description of every part of the business.
The next part was how to set up a business legally. You can either be a sole proprietor or a corporation. Corporations are treated as an entity and if it is used or fails to repay all its debts, its owner does not have to personally pay or lose assets. You also need to file for an EIN to start a corporation. You need to brand and advertise your business with a logo, website, company email, slogans, mission statements, business cards and letterheads.
Today I started the planning phase of the entrepreneurship unit. You need to create something semiunique that people will buy and that you are at least somewhat passionate about. You need to surround yourself with experienced people. One of the most important parts of a business is its model. You need to consult customers and experts to find the perfect business model for a company. Companies like Spotify, Amazon and Tinder created different business models that allowed them to succeed. Others like Starbucks used branding and rapid expansion to put their foot into the coffee industry. However, they also expanded too quickly which led to competition between stores in higher density areas. Your first business may not succeed so sometimes it is best to learn from your mistakes and start anew. Profit models are the ways your business will actually earn money. Some include production models, rental, advertising, commission, e-commerce, fee for service, markup, auctions, data sales, transaction enablers, marketplace, freemium, affiliate, subscription and some charity and free sites rely on donations. When you breach into a new market, you need to know your competition. Competition is not always bad as you can learn from your competitors and what makes them successful. Knowing your customer is also important, as you need to give them a reason to buy your product instead of somebody else. Defensibility is how well a new company or competitor can copy your style. With easy to enter markets this is very easy. However, you want to find a way to make it hard for other companies to replicate.
I finished the jetsetter lifestyle lesson. It was about how you can make money by traveling, not when traveling. You can start a blog and/or write about your experiences. You can live in low cost areas while doing remote work as well. There are also programs and websites that offer free places to stay.
I then started the entrepreneurship unit. The first part was defining what is entrepreneurship alongside some advice for starting your new company. Essentially, you have to make something that stands out and that people want to and will buy. You can offer services or products. You want to do something you're at least somewhat passionate about Surround yourself with good and experienced people who will help you. Be able to market yourself and/or your product. You need to be a charismatic and capable, confident leader. There were also some vlog videos of successful entrepreneurs, who had a structured but comfy schedule.
Today I did health and productivity, stress management, role models and mentors, and time management.
Time management was mainly about how to be productive, while still maintaining satisfaction and a healthy lifestyle. You should organize your day based on what you have to do, while not being too ambitious. There are many apps to help you do this, such as Trello, Toggl, Canva and My Study Life. You should also create a habit and pattern. It takes about 21 days to form a habit and 90 days for that to become permanent, approximately. Kanban is a way of scheduling
Health and Productivity was about sleeping and exercising. Exercising helps you feel good about yourself and keeps you fit. Good, healthy eating habits and sleep allows you to be more aware. Additionally, in order to achieve your goals, you should not be afraid as fear holds everybody back.
Managing stress is about your confidence and your expectations, being able to stand up for yourself also helps.
Mentors are also important as they provide advice to you and are most times professionals in their industry. You can ask people to become your mentor or you can apply online. A role model is different as they don't personally know you or any of their admirers in most cases. They are often times celebrities and cannot help you in the same way a mentor can.
I did the scam lesson, networking, saving and time management.
The scam lesson talks about the basics of scams and how they work. Basically, you should be aware of things that seem to be too good to be true. For example, you are getting paid significantly more than what you should be getting for a job, extremely cheap items, work from a sketchy place or places that try to get your information.
You have to be constantly networking, even at spas and gyms. You should also network at events and online, even if you are not in search of a job.
For smart financial management, you should buy items that have high resell value, such as old sport cars and watches. Things like new electronics and clothing do not have a high resell value. You should also try to save your money from your paycheck, through investing, crypto or saving accounts. Try to avoid paying on credit.
You should also figure out how much your time is worth and how much you should bargain, save and spend. You need to spend money to make money and it is dependent on your situation how much you should spend to save time.
Today I did 7-11 of the intro.
7 was just about social media behavior and how you should use it to your advantage or disadvantage. It can also be used by employers to see how you are as a person outside of work.
9 was a list of websites and job listings for remote work.
10 was about how to do a job interview and get hired. You need to maintain a good appearance, and be prepped. You have to be ready to answer questions about salary, motivations and experiences. You want to make sure that you know the company hiring you very well and be friendly. If it is a remote interview you want to make sure there is little noise and distractions around you. Make sure you have good lighting and a good camera angle.
11 was about how to actually do your work and scheduling. There are multiple tools such as slack and shared emails that help your team communicate with each other. The biggest challenge in remote work is connecting with your team.
Today I started the introduction portion. I finished lessons 1-6.
The first 2 were about the systems.
The third one was about why you should work remotely. You could make a lot of money
without being stuck in a 9-5 and while traveling. You can create your own workspace and be in control.
The 4th lesson was on what you needed to be able to remotely work.
The 5th one was on how you could get paid. You can do this through cash, checking accounts, paypal, square, merchant accounts and crypto. Each have the own drawbacks and benefits with cash being risky, accounts being subjected to fees and crypto being subjected to the market.
The final lesson I did was on how to obtain a job. Linkedin is essentially required and you need to create a profile that attracts employers. You also need to set up a resume that describes your experiences and benefits and a cover letter that details why you want the posistion.