Sample Content Preview

Minimalist Living

Have you heard about minimalist living but aren’t sure what it means or what benefits it could offer you? You aren’t alone. The concept of minimalist living isn’t a new one, but it’s an idea that has recently gained more momentum as increasing numbers of people recognize how much better their lives can be when they switch to a minimalist lifestyle.

The modern world is a frantic and hectic place. The pace of life these days never seems to slow down. Many of us feel as if we are bombarded on all sides with urgent demands and pressures that are hard to resist. “More” is the buzzword of the moment. The more we have of everything, the more satisfied we’re supposed to be. More possessions should equate to more happiness – at least that’s what we’re conditioned to believe. But is this true?

Those who have adopted the minimalist lifestyle would disagree with the above opinion. They say that, by adopting a simpler approach to every aspect of life, from relationships to the workplace, it becomes possible to narrow down your focus and to concentrate on what really matters. As a result, you can enjoy more happiness, more satisfaction and even more success in all areas without all the physical, mental and emotional clutter that seems to build up over time.

Here, we take a closer look at what changing to a minimalist way of living could mean to you and how it could help you to enjoy greater peace of mind. With this how-to guide to switching to a minimalist lifestyle, you have all the tools you need at your disposal to make an informed decision about whether you could benefit from making the change.

Learn all you need to know about what a modern minimalistic lifestyle looks like and find out more about how you can adopt the principles of this exciting and revolutionary lifestyle concept into your everyday life. You’re sure to be impressed by the many benefits that you can derive when you make just a few simple changes.

Chapter 1 - What is Minimalist Living?

The first thing that you need to understand before adopting this new lifestyle is what exactly is "minimalism"? And how does it look in practice?

What Does Minimalist Living Look Like?

Before we answer this question, let’s just reiterate the fact that minimalist living is nothing new. It’s something that has been around for a very long time. Monks and nuns from centuries ago chose to live with only the absolute essentials in their lives so that they could focus on their faith and become closer to a supreme power. They found that, by eschewing everyday luxuries, they could develop a greater understanding of themselves and their beliefs.

Yet, these days, things are very different. Very few people are living this kind of basic and simple lifestyle. Most of us have fallen into a trap of wanting more than just the basics. We have fallen prey to the media and marketers’ message that the secret to a happy life is to own more by having more of everything; more money, more success, more possessions and more technology.

Yet, those of us who seek to accrue an endless stream of possessions usually come to learn over time that the promise of happiness that advertisers dangle in front of us couldn’t be more false. The real secret to finding happiness and peace is to think in terms of subtraction rather than addition. Less is more when it comes to finding satisfaction in life and peace of mind.

Essentially, at its core, minimalism is all about living with less. While that can be taken literally as having fewer possessions, it has more far-reaching implications for the way that you live your life. The concept behind minimalist living is learning to identify the things which are important and then focusing down on those things while eradicating everything else which is deemed to be unimportant from your life.

The Misunderstandings About Minimalist Living

As you might imagine, there is a lot of misunderstandings about what minimalist living really means. Many people think that it means you can’t own a home or have a car. Others think that you’re restricted to only having as many possessions as you can fit into a small backpack or bag.

None of this is true. In fact, minimalism could best be described as intentionally promoting anything that you most value while removing anything which brings no value into your life. It is a concept that resonates differently with every individual. While for some, that may mean a great degree of elimination, for others, it may be much less extreme but no less beneficial.

The principle of minimalist living is to remove anything which could be considered as clutter from your everyday existence. This clutter may be physical, in the form of possessions that you simply don’t require, or it may be emotional or mental, for example, in the form of toxic relationships that are causing you unhappiness or stressful situations in which you find yourself. It means that you adjust your mindset and, in so doing, learn how you can live your life not only with greater purpose but also with greater peace.

What is a Life of Intentionality?

When you opt for a minimalist lifestyle, you’re opting for a life of intentionality. What does this mean? It means that you’re intentionally making time, space and room for all the things which you love and value, while simultaneously eliminating all that could distract you from really enjoying and appreciating those things to the max.

You’re opting for a lifestyle in which you intentionally choose which possessions you should own and what you’re going to do with them for yourself without relying on convention or pressure from external forces. You’re also choosing how that will impact on your way of thinking and living, and how it will change your perspective on your own life.

It may seem like an unusual concept. After all, we’re more used to following the herd and accepting what everyone else does as the norm. However, if you take this way of living onboard, you’ll be surprised at the benefits you can reap. Minimalism brings with it a host of benefits which are well known to those who practice this way of living. Those who extol its virtues say that minimalist living is an effective tool to help you to find freedom from worry, fear, guilt, and depression.

With around a quarter of us suffering from mental health issues at any one time, it’s no wonder that so many people are now questioning whether minimalist living could be the right way to go. So, could you benefit from making these changes in your life? Here, you can learn more about how switching to a more minimalistic approach to everyday life can help you to enjoy greater freedom, to improve your relationships, to become more successful in your professional life and, most importantly, to experience greater satisfaction and happiness across all areas of your life daily.

Sample Content Preview

Being smart in business means knowing what’s just around the corner. It means thinking ahead and preparing for inevitable changes that will impact the way business is conducted. This is what allows a business to be resilient and to thrive in a changing environment. Digital marketing is no different. In fact, in his book The Personal MBA, author Josh Kaufman discusses the value of counterfactual simulation. This means imagining future possibilities and then preparing for them.

Let’s say that you have a big business that is doing well in a specific niche. Maybe you have a company that sells a whey protein shake. The mistake that some big businesses make is to assume that they’re too big to fail and to coast along as they are.

But what would happen if another company came along and released a better protein shake for a fraction of the price? What if a new source of protein were to be discovered? What if a study revealed that whey protein was bad for us? Any of these things could happen, and could completely shake up even the most established business.

The smart company though, will already have considered these eventualities and prepared for them. THIS is counterfactual simulation: it’s thinking about what’s just around the corner and then preparing for those possibilities.

As digital marketers, that means thinking about things that could impact on the face of marketing. And one of the things that could have the biggest impact of all? Artificial intelligence.

AI and machine learning have the potential to completely change the face of internet marketing, rendering many older strategies obsolete even. Only by preparing for those changes, can you ensure that your websites manage to hold their position in the SERPs, that your advertising campaigns remain profitable, and that your services remain relevant.

And a lot of this stuff isn’t just speculation: it’s happening right now. AI is already making huge waves even though you might not realize it yet.

It’s affecting the way that SEO works, the tools and software we use, and the way that ads are displayed. AI is able to think faster and smarter than any human, and that’s especially true when it comes to internet marketing which is a data driven pursuit. An AI marketer can create endless amounts of content in a second – doing the work of hundreds of humans. All of that content will be perfect catered toward the target demographic. AI will run Google. It will manage entire business models. It will run AdWords. And it will run new tools we haven’t even dreamed up yet. The digital marketing singularity is just around the corner. This book will help you to prepare, and explain a number of concepts:

• AI vs Machine Learning
• How to conduct SEO now that Google is an “AI first” company
• Chatbots
• Programmatic advertising
• Big data
• RankBrain
• Digital assistants
• Data science
• SQL
• Latent Semantic Indexing
• The future of internet marketing

In this book, you will gain a crystal ball with which to gaze into the future of internet marketing, and to ensure that you are ready for all those changes when they come. By the end, you’ll be better prepared and in a better position than 99.9% of other marketers.

Before we go further, we should first take a look at precisely what AI and machine learning actually are. These are two related but also distinct terms, which often get confused. Both will impact on marketing, but in different and unique ways.

AI then is artificial intelligence. That means software and hardware designed to act and appear intelligent. Such software is capable of making meaningful choices, and conducting activities that we would normally consider the remit of humans.

AI comes in two broad flavors. One is weak AI, which is also known as narrow AI. Weak AI is essentially a form of AI that is designed to perform a specific job.

An example of this is the self-driving car. This form of AI is capable of knowing the positions of countless cars on the road, and being able to respond by steering, accelerating, breaking etc. If you were to watch a self-driving car from the outside, you might think a human were driving. In that way, it does a job that would normally be considered a human role.

BUT at the same time, you can’t speak with a self-driving car and you can’t ask it how it’s feeling. A self-driving car would certainly not pass the Turing Test!

Note: The Turing test is a test designed to measure the effectiveness of an AI. If you talk to an AI on a chat app, and you don’t know that it isn’t human, then it is considered to have “passed the Turing test.” Another example of weak AI is used when creating bad guys in computer games. These use programming in order to behave in a human-like manner, and to provide a challenge for the player.

However, the code is only useful in the context of the video game, and so it’s not about to turn into Skynet any time soon!

Weak AI might not sound as exciting, but it is being used for a huge range of extremely exciting things – from helping to treat disease, to improving the economy.

Conversely, the type of AI that we often see in science fiction, is what we know as “general AI.” This is AI that doesn’t have just one purpose, but that is designed to do everything that a human might be able to do. So you could play a word game with this AI, ask it how it’s feeling, or get it to look up something useful.

An example of a general AI is DeepMind, owned by Google. DeepMind is a company that has developed a “neural network,” that employs “general learning algorithms” to learn a huge range of different skills.

Many AIs such as IBM’s Watson are actually pre-programmed. That means that they work using a kind of flow chart, and will answer questions with the same answer every time. On the other hand, DeepMind is apparently able to think and respond via a “convolutional neural network.” Certain behaviors and reinforced and encouraged, and these will begin to become more prominent. This isn’t a perfect simulation of how a human brain works (cognitive behavioral psychology teaches us the importance of having internal dialogues and models for thinking), however it is the closest thing we currently have to a “true” general intelligence.

Machine Learning

Machine learning on the other hand works differently. Machine learning utilizes huge data sets in order to gain surprising and almost frightening capabilities at times.

Machine learning essentially allows a piece of software to be “trained.” An obvious example of this would be computer vision.

Computer vision describes the ability that some machines have to understand visual information. An example is Google Lens, which can tell you what you’re pointing your phone’s camera at, whether that’s a type of flower, or a product you can buy in stores. Computer vision is necessary for self-driving cars to successfully navigate their environments, and it’s used by apps like Snapchat which use filters to change people’s faces.

How do these work? By looking at thousands and thousands of pictures of every type of object. While the machine learning algorithm will never understand what it is looking at, it can look for patterns in the data which will then be useful to identify those objects in future. For example, it might notice that faces are typically oval in shape, with a dark patch of hair on top. It then knows that if it sees an oval shape with a dark patch at the top, it’s possibly looking at a face. Machine learning has HUGE potential in just about every field. In futur e, it can be used to diagnose disease more accurately than a human doctor, to advise on financial decisions, to identify fraudulent bank transfers, and much more.

All of this has HUGE potential implications for internet marketing, and that’s what we’ll be exploring in the following chapters.

A while ago now, Google announced that it had become an AI-first company. While that might sound like meaningless marketing babble, the truth is that this determination actually has HUGE potential repercussions for marketers, businesses, and SEO.

Sample Content Preview

Introduction

So, you want to get started with internet marketing? As an internet marketer, you’ll be able to earn money from the comfort of your home, with no limit as to how far you can scale and grow your business. It’s highly rewarding, and it’s a skill that you can use to land jobs, or market to other companies, too.

In short, you’ve made a very good decision!

Perhaps you’ve seen friends, or people online who seem to be earning money from the comfort of their home – and doing very well at it indeed. Now it’s time to give it a go yourself! There’s just one problem: it’s all rather complicated. If you’re not familiar with the world of internet marketing, then you might even be wondering how it’s even possible to earn money online without

selling anything physical! It seems like everyone is promoting eachother and no one is actually shipping any physical products. Then there is all the jargon: PPC, affiliate marketing, display ads, SEO, SMO, CTR, CPA…

It’s all a bit daunting and it’s certainly not clear how or where to start. Read on then, and we’ll take a look at everything you need to know in order to become a master of internet marketing and to start making lots of money online.

Chapter 1 – How to Choose a Niche to Target

The first step to creating an online business is to choose what kind of online business you want to create. This starts by choosing a niche – what is the subject matter you will be dealing with?

In this chapter, you will learn how to do this, and you will see how this initial decision goes on to influence every other step. What is a Niche and Why Does it Matter?

Every site should have a niche which describes the kind of thing that you will be writing about and the people you will be writing it for. Your site might be a 'general' site or a personal blog that doesn't stick to any particular topic, but even then there will be at least a 'theme' or a feel tying it together. You might write about books, coffee and the city, but that's still a niche in its way and it's one that will attract a very specific type of person.

And knowing and understanding your niche is incredibly important if you hope to be able to make a success of your site. Unfortunately, too many webmasters do not really fully understand their niche and their sites tend to suffer as a result.

Essentially you should know what your niche is. For most site owners or bloggers this will be an incredibly easy question to answer: the site will probably be about 'football' or 'technology' and that's fairly easy to define.

If your site is more general though, then make a list of all the topics that you write about regularly and then think about a) what ties them together, and b) what kind of person will read them. You've probably created a new niche for yourself, but as long as your future content meets those same criteria then you will be on the money.

The niche you pick should primarily be determined by your own interests. If you’re going to be living and breathing your blog for the next 10 years, then this NEEDS to be something you’re keen to learn and write about.

What’s more, is that you won’t be able to deliver really unique and valuable content if you don’t know anything about the topic! And hiring professional writers won’t guarantee that you’ll find someone who has a real passion and interest for the topic. While that’s true, you also need to consider the viability of the niche choice. How competitive is it? Do you stand a chance against the biggest sites? How profitable and monetizable is it? We’ll get onto this more in future chapters, but the subject you choose should be something that people are willing to spend money on and that has lots of opportunities for informational products.

Finance is the very best niche in this regard because there is so much money to be made on that subject. But likewise, you’ll find that you can make a lot of money writing about dating, fitness, or other topics that speak to a fundamental human need in this way. Why You Should Get More Specific When Choosing

Your Niche

But in order to really succeed – and to gain an edge over the competition - you need to go a little deeper. Sure, your site might be a technology website, but what kind of technology do your write about? Who are you writing for? And what is the purpose of your site?

For instance, you might write about all kinds of technology but find that you seem to stick more to technology that's just around the corner. Perhaps you write lots of big previews for technology that's coming. And perhaps you write in a very technical way that is clearly aimed at people who know their stuff?

This is a very different niche from a site that reviews basic commercial technology in a style that can appeal to the average customer.

Again then, you will have created your own niche that should be completely unique. You might make a football site sure, but is it a dry site that deals with a detailed overview of football for real fanatics? Or is it a more gossip filled site that's aimed at the typical 'bloke'? Again, these are slightly different niches and it's important to recognise the difference.

If you can be consistent with your precise niche, then you will find that your site offers something that not every other site does. You will have a specific audience and people who particularly like the way you approach the topic. Stick to your guns and you can make your site highly successful as a result.

The Power of Creating Your Own Niche

That said though, there are few niches left that have a good number of people interested but that nevertheless don't have too much overcrowding in the marketplace. This is particularly difficult when you consider how important it also is that you actually be interested in the niche that you're going to be dealing with so regularly from now on and that you actually know a thing or two about it too.

So how do you standout without limiting your appeal or writing about something dull? Well one solution is to come up with your own niche and to create a website that will be unlike any other. Here we will look at how you can potentially accomplish that.

Sites That Don't Fit Nicely Into Boxes

When you browse the web for inspiration on niches for your website, you will often find lists of categories such as 'fitness', 'making money', 'football', 'film' and others like these. Not every site though has to fit neatly into a category like this - it is possible to come up with a completely unique angle and to create a niche that wasn't there before.

Take https://www.lifehacker.com for instance and https://www.lifehack.org. These sites exist in the same niche but go back a decade and that niche wouldn't have existed. These sites tie together lots of themes using a 'way of life' or 'attitude' to gel it all together. In this case that attitude is the 'hacker' attitude - where DIY applies to everything from selfimprovement to making money; but you could just as easily build a site around any other central idea like this.

Sample Content Preview

It seems that more and more every day we are hearing something about the vegan lifestyle. Most of us probably know somebody who is a vegetarian or a vegan, or who simply seem curious about the idea of going meat-free. What exactly is the appeal?

People go vegan for a number of reasons, most of which are very personal to them. Of course you may find those who are very emotionally connected to their cause and seek to inform and educate others on cruelty-free procedures so that their message can be heard. Advocates of a vegan lifestyle can get a bad rap, probably because it seems like a very extreme adjustment and some of the ways animals are treated can be truly heartbreaking. Some vegans may take it upon themselves to try and force others to care or understand in ways that can actually really turn the modern masses off of the message.

That’s because our diets are something personal to us. We all have the right to choose the way we eat, and it is a privilege that in this day and age we have the resources available to us to actually cut meat out of our lives safely. Ethical practices for raising certain animals in the agricultural industry have come about because of the advocacy of groups that are passionate about animal welfare, and for those of us who are interested in veganism but not quite ready to make it an active lifestyle, that’s okay. You can still make informed choices about where you get your food from, and what it takes to get from point A to what you find on your plate.

Whether you are reading this book to learn more about veganism and what it means, or you are seriously considering a vegan lifestyle and want a guide to help to show you the way, this book will help you to learn the basics of going vegan and how it can benefit not only your body and mind, but also the world around us. Let’s get started!

A lot of people are unclear about veganism and what it stands for. Many of us have an idea in our minds about what it could mean. Does it mean becoming militant about animal rights and lecturing the people closest to us about their unethical food choices? Does it mean living a more peaceful lifestyle that is automatically more healthy because we are supposed to be eating more fruits and vegetables and less of the red meat that has been linked with heart disease? Does it mean cutting out every single food associated with animals, or just some?

Maybe these questions can seem silly, but they are valid. A vegan lifestyle is something that is often unfamiliar to people and so it is natural to wonder about it. This book will help to guide you through all the questions you may have and provide tools and resources for those questions the guide may not address. Chances are if you have asked, someone else out there has as well, and has found the answers you are looking for!

But let’s start with the basics. A vegan lifestyle is one in which the person undertaking it is conscientious about the origins of the products they use and the foods that they eat. A vegan views the world with a particular passion to be as animal-friendly as possible. The unfortunate truth about the world is that some practices utilized in order to feed the masses are inhumane and can cause needless suffering to animals. Vegans aim to try and stop that suffering by refusing to support the industries that allow it to exist in the first place.

For example, a vegan who is living the vegan lifestyle will likely do a lot of research before purchasing any products. They will most likely want to know where the product’s origin is located and ensure that no living creature was needlessly harmed or suffered for the making of the product. They want to live with a clear conscience. Many vegans are also humanitarians, who will go as far as researching their clothing and coffee to make sure that the businesses they support are not causing harm to less fortunate people or communities. How far you take your lifestyle is up to you, but ignorance is a choice that can be difficult to live with.

To answer a few other questions, vegans do not eat meat at all. They also do not eat any byproducts of animals. Animal byproducts are foods that are produced with animals involved, such as milk, cheese, eggs, and other dairy items. They choose not to use animal byproducts because practices can often be cruel. Take the egg industry, for instance. When the baby chicks are born, they are sorted into categories of male and female. The female chicks are taken to farms, where they are often fed growth hormones or forced in pens that are lit with artificial daylight 24/7 so they will lay eggs constantly. The male chicks are disposed of in dumpsters, left there to starve to death or suffocate.

This is an inhumane practice. It doesn’t take much to understand how horrifying these conditions are. Vegans do not want to support anything that can cause harm and suffering of this caliber. They do not want to support factory farms or dairy farms where animals are mistreated and not allowed to live their fullest, healthiest lives. The goal is to show the rest of the world that such mistreatment does not need to happen and will not be tolerated. Money talks, and vegans use theirs to support businesses that align with their personal moral code.

It may seem trivial to some people. They may say it’s pointless, because there is no way we will ever change the world enough that people will voluntarily give up their diet choices in lieu of veganism. The animals will still be slaughtered, everything will go on as it was before because there will always be a high demand for meat. And in ways this may be true. But even if the whole world continues to eat meat and support inhumane practices, the choices you make will always make a difference to the animals you chose not to eat that day. And that’s what veganism is all about.

A common question that many people have is, what is the difference between veganism and vegetarianism? A lot of people may get confused and think that they are the same thing, when in fact they are vastly different.

To begin with, there are several different categories for vegetarians. Lacto-ovo vegetarians include lactose and eggs in their diets. However, they will not include meat products or poultry into their diets. Lacto vegetarians will not include eggs in their diets, but they do consume dairy. They also prefer not to eat other animal products. Then we get to vegans, who will not eat any egg or dairy products, or products that have utilized animals in any way whatsoever.

There are many people out there who call themselves vegetarians even though they will occasionally eat meat here and there. Some may not consider eating seafood to be a meat, so if you are going vegan you may find that you get the question, “Do you eat fish?” a lot. Just do your best to be polite when discussing your diet choices. Many people are unfamiliar with the vegan lifestyle, and the more compassion you show to them for being curious, the more likely you will be to receive compassion in return. Isn’t that what going vegan is all about?

A lot of people don’t know the difference between vegans and vegetarians, so rather than asking if a food is vegan, which may cause people to answer in the mindset of “no, there isn’t any chunks of meat in this,” versus, “No, there are no animals or animal byproducts present in this dish.” That can cause some strife, not just for the vegan but for the person who is attempting to be hospitable. Sometimes it’s just easier to say that while you appreciate the good intentions, you are going to be providing your own foods at certain social gatherings or events, that way there is no mistaking what it is that you are putting into your body.

A person who thinks a vegan diet and a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet are the same thing can easily violate a vegan’s boundaries by feeding them things that may have cheese or dairy in it because they misunderstand the meanings of the words or they simply haven’t looked into it well enough. What is a lacto-ovo vegetarian you may ask? A lacto-ovo vegetarian is someone who does not eat meat, but who does eat animal byproducts such as cheese and eggs. They have not cut out dairy from their diets the way a vegan would. It’s an easy mistake to make, especially for those who are uninformed.

There are other types of vegetarians as well. Some are called ovo-vegetarians and they eat only eggs and non-meat products. Lacto-vegetarians don’t eat meat or any eggs or egg products. And then of course there is the flexitarian, who eats a mostly vegetarian diet but every so often will include meat in their diet. Another thing a lot of people consider vegetarianism is pescatarian, which actually means a vegetarian diet with the exception of eating fish. That is probably why a lot of people think that being vegan or vegetarian can mean that you still include fish in your diet. So this may be a question you get a lot once you have adopted a vegan lifestyle.

There is no shame in any way you choose to live your life or the diet that works best for you and your body’s specific needs. It is important not to shame others for the way they live their lives, especially if you want to begin to create a more tolerant world that is accepting of the ideologies veganism often stands for. By being receptive, we create a more receptive world that is more likely to listen to our point of view in a way that doesn’t feel threatening to them so they may choose one day to try it for themselves and see how it feels. Even just a single meatless Monday can be a huge step in helping to eliminate needless suffering in animals.

That isn’t to say you have to associate with people who make you feel ashamed to live the way you choose to live and for the way you eat. Treat others as you wish to be treated. And just as no vegan wants to be in the position of the suffering animals, neither do they want to be in a toxic atmosphere where people are making them feel ashamed for the choices they make. If you find that you are in a toxic environment then you would do well to find a way out as quickly as possible so you may begin to live your life in a healthier way.

Once you have decided what label best fits you in terms of your diet, it will be easier for you to explain what your diet is like to those who matter the most to you. Once they understand your specific limitations then there is a high chance they will do everything in their power to accommodate you, which can be a great thing.

Sample Content Preview

Introduction

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways for anyone to earn money online. This is a quick and passive method to earn cash that is highly scalable, and that is easy to set up. No technical skill is required, and if you choose the right products and connect with the right market, you can stand to make hundreds of even thousands of dollars in a short space of time.

But let’s back up for just a moment. First: what precisely is affiliate marketing? How does it work? And what makes it so much more effective than other money-making strategies for internet entrepreneurs?

Essentially, affiliate marketing means selling a product that is not yours for a commission. You then get to earn money for each sale you make, meaning that all you need to do is to connect that product with an audience that will appreciate it.

When selling affiliate products such as eBooks, you will often find that you get to keep 70% or more of the profit! Choose the right product, and you can earn just as much money as someone who built a product themselves.

In this book, you will learn the benefits of affiliate marketing, as well as how to get started quickly and efficiently in order to begin making money. With smart product selection, a primed audience, and just a little bit of good fortune, this could genuinely change your life.

For those that are already selling affiliate products, this book should serve to provide you with the additional skills and tips you need to really take your business to the next level. This includes the tools being used by top brands in order to sell HUGE ticket items like MBA courses and $5,000+ powerhouse laptops.

Chapter 1: Why Affiliate Marketing is the Best Way to Make Money for Beginners

Affiliate marketing is a concept that eludes many people. How can you make money from selling something you didn’t make?

How can earning money online really be that simple.

The simplest way to explain it is that it is essentially sales. You are acting as a seller and earning commission on any sales you make. In that way, you are just like the door-to-door salesmen who come around to sell you broadband.

The difference is that you aren’t going door to door. The internet is your door and this is a door that gives you access to everyone on the planet. That right away gives you a huge advantage – and especially when you learn how you can get the visitors to come to you.

The other difference here is that the commission scheme is going to be highly different. Regular salesmen will normally get a small cut of whatever they sell: perhaps 5-10%. As mentioned, the difference with affiliate marketing, is that you’re going to get as much as 70-80% of the proceeds. That’s right: often as an affiliate marketer you are actually going to earn more than the creator of the product!

This is what makes affiliate marketing so hugely appealing: because it means that you can start earning just as though you were selling your own product, but without having to invest lots of money to create something from scratch.

What’s more, is that because you’ll be selling a product that is already out there, you can choose something that is already selling in big numbers. When you create your own product to sell, there is always a small risk that you’ll build something that no one wants. When you simply market something that is highly popular, that becomes much less likely!

Another huge benefit of affiliate marketing is just how scalable it is. If you create a single web page selling the merits of an affiliate product, then you can start profiting from it within hours. In that case then, what is to stop you from making another page to sell another product? And another page to sell another product?

How Affiliate Marketing Works

So, let’s get a little more technical, shall we? How precisely does affiliate marketing work and why would a creator ever be happy to give away so much of their own profits?

First, let’s consider the type of content you are going to be selling. To many marketers, affiliate products will be digital products. There are plenty more options, which we will explore in this book later. But for now, that’s what we’ll focus on. That means things like eBooks, like online courses and like presentations.

Digital products are immediately a good choice for selling online because they have zero overheads and no ‘COGs’ (this is a business term meaning ‘Cost Of Goods Sold’. That means that the creator doesn’t have to pay out at all for each sale and they can instead just make profit and share that profit. It also means they never had to invest large amounts of money upfront and they don’t have to handle delivery either.

So, the creator likely made this digital product themselves using Word or a camera, or perhaps they outsourced the creation to someone else. Either way, they will have built this ebook or course with the intention of selling it for profit.

Then the creator will probably have begun selling said product from their website or from a random page online. They’ll try to drive as much traffic as they possibly can to their website in order to encourage people to buy from them and thus they’ll have their own passive income stream.

But there’s only so much promotion that one person can do and eventually their well is going to run dry. That is when a creator might start looking for affiliates to work with to help them promote their products.

The product creator is thus willing to offer affiliates like us 70% and above because they want to incentivize us to sell their products. They also want to encourage us to sell their products rather than the products that other creators are offering affiliate programs for.

While the creator will now only make 30% on their sales, this is still 30% more than they would have made on those sales otherwise – because they wouldn’t have exited.

And if that seller can attract thousands of people to their books with a legion of online marketers, they’ll be making gigantic profits and much more than they could on their own.

In short, this is a win/win situation. The creator gets a thousands more sales by encouraging marketers to work with them and affiliate get to sell a product as though it were their own and keep most of the profits! They can make just as much money as they would from their own ebook or course, but without having to develop one and take that huge gamble.

Specifically, the way this process actually works is via the use of ‘affiliate links’ which in turn work via cookies.

When you find an affiliate product you want to promote, you will be given an affiliate link and this is what you need to include on your sales page and in your blog posts.

When a buyer clicks on your affiliate link, they will first be redirected to another page on the web. Here, a cookie will be stored on their computer which will identify them as having come from you. Now, when they buy something from that store, they will be recorded as being ‘one of yours’ and the commission will be added to your total for you to withdraw at some point in the future. For you it’s simple: promote the product and provide the link. That’s all there is to it!

Sample Content Preview

Anything less than perfection feels like failure.

If they do, then there’s a chance that you’re experiencing some degree of anxiety and/or depression. Unpleasant feelings are a part of our daily lives. They are there to teach us a lesson. Once we’ve learned our lesson, they often move on, but might come back with another lesson later.

As a result of these experiences, you’re likely to feel sad and stressed. These are perfectly normal emotions to go through from time to time. Everyone feels low and apprehensive about something or the other at some point in their lives. But when these unpleasant emotions begin to consume you, then you must act before it’s too late.

Fortunately, these feelings can be healed. They can be made to shift to a more positive and constructive space. And we are here to help. The Anti-Anxiety Formula book has been written with especially this in mind.

You will find a wide range of skills and tools to help manage and overcome your anxiety. This book is filled with questions that help you reflect and find answers for yourself. We urge you to give every practice a try before deciding on the ones that work best for you.

On that note, we welcome you to our book titled, ‘The Anti-Anxiety Formula.’ We’ve had an enriching time creating this book and hope that experience translates to our readers too.

Chapter 1 - You and Your Anxiety: How to Overcome Your Stuck Points

Anxiety can creep up on you in many ways from physical and behavioral symptoms that are obvious to subtler symptoms that mess with your emotional and cognitive state of being. Yet, each time, it can leave behind a somewhat similar and familiar feeling - the feeling of being a little more lost, battered, and alone.

No anxious person has the same set of symptoms, which is why each person’s anxiety is unique and therefore their individual journey. That said, most people have some of each type of the symptoms, only in different combinations, which makes understanding how it works more appreciable. This chapter focuses on personality concepts that will help you understand how your anxiety works.

The Multifaceted You

Now, you cannot understand the average anxious person to understand your anxiety. You don’t need to either. You need to understand the many dimensions within which you and your anxiety exist. Once you start identifying these dimensions which are mostly characterized by triggers and symptoms, you’ll be able to work around them, and in time, overcome them too.

Worksheet 1 - What Do You See?

Here’s a quick worksheet for you. Do any of these situations sound familiar to you?

- You dislike change. Every time you are put into a new situation, you feel restless and worried.
- You over process information, decisions, and possibilities before acting.
- You tend to be pessimistic about the present and future.
- You constantly dwell into negative past experiences.
- You worry about everything.
- You feel awkward when someone compliments you. You also believe they don’t mean their compliments or are mocking you in some way.
- You are your harshest critic.

While there is no scoring system here to rate your anxiety, it does help you to understand if you are anxiety-prone or not. The more items you check, the more likely you are suffering from anxiety, depression or both.

Understanding Your Anxiety and What It Is Doing to You

Anxiety on the inside can affect what you do and how you act on the outside. And so, if you were to observe your mind and body carefully, you might be able to notice some signs, behavioral and physical, that can tell you what your anxiety might be doing to you. For instance, an anxious person might be dealing with several conflicting and apprehensive thoughts. The internal noise and fear that reverberates inside might make them appear tired, withdrawn, and/or nervous.

Worksheet 2 - What Does Your Behavior Say of You?

Check off statements that apply to you.

- I find myself crying for no reason.
- There are times when I feel empty and can’t make myself do what I want to do.
- I avoid socializing.
- I avoid risks.
- I also avoid doing fun stuff because I worry about the possible risk involved.
- I’m afraid of failure and judgment.
- I get fidgety.
- I obsess over the past, worry about the future, and can rarely stay in the present.

And About Your Body?

- I have no appetite.
- I’m always hungry.
- My palms sweat all the time.
- I can feel nauseous, lightheaded, cold, and shaky when anxious.
- My heart races when I worry.
- I feel cold and weak too.
- I have very little energy.

Again, there is no scoring system to rate your anxiety. The more symptoms you check off, the more likely you are experiencing anxiety.

Note: Now, some of the above symptoms can also result from various other reasons, and so, we suggest you consult your primary care physician before making any conclusions.

Reflecting upon Your Triggers and Identifying Beliefs That are Standing in Your Way

If you could follow an anxious mind, you might see patterns of unfavorable thoughts that keep playing on and off. These thoughts might be triggers to the anxiety itself, and so addressing them is very important. A clinical technique called imagery exposure, used in therapy, can help address the triggers as well as identify their sources.