How To Start An Online Business & Live In Brazil

Jackpot

In January 2016, three lucky people won the record Powerball jackpot.

$1,500,000,000

Did you buy a ticket in hopes of waking up in the morning with millions of dollars?

I bet you did if you were in America.

Why would you want to win the lottery? I can think of a few reasons.

    • So you could quit your job (that you might hate)
    • So you could live in your dream city
    • So you could buy a mansion and exotic cars
    • So you could spend more time with your family and friends

But most importantly.

You would have “fuck you” money.

Don’t like the city you are in? You got the money to pack up and move today because you aren’t worried about losing your job. Your woman is getting on your nerves and you are fed up with her?

Nino Brown is an extreme example, but you catch my drift. You have options when your money problems are over. And you do have money problems if you can’t live anywhere you want and do whatever you want.

I’m working towards having “fuck you” money so I can live in Brazil whenever I want. But not a billion dollars worth of it. You don’t need that much to quit a job you don’t like or to move to your dream city.

There’s a more realistic way of making money while living where you want, when you want.


 

The Guide To Making Money Online & Live In Brazil

Many people want to move to another city. I’d love to live in a different city every year. You might want to live in Brazil or another country too. But one thing is holding us back.

Money.

Luckily, you can make money on the internet and live wherever you want.

The average person is aware of people making money online, but they just don’t think they can do it too.

The first time I told my grandmother about my first check from online work, she couldn’t believe it.

She couldn’t believe I made money at home on my computer.

Thinking Different

There’s a common belief that working for someone else is more stable than working for yourself. Do you feel better being behind the wheel of a car or having someone you don’t know well drive you around like Uber?

Some people have even tricked themselves into believing that they are bosses while being an employee!

I’ve met guys who say entrepreneurs are no different from employees. They say something like “employees work for their boss, but entrepreneurs work for their customers.”

Nice try.

There is a big difference between working with someone and working for someone. Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t work for Facebook users. He works with them by improving Facebook; in return, Facebook users use his website and make him billions.

Would you rather work for someone or work with them?

Traditionally, people became entrepreneurs by providing a service. You would become a plumber and visit people’s homes to work on their toilet or you would open a convenience store and sell snacks and lotto tickets.

Today, you can start a business in a better way. You can make more money while also having more time and living wherever you want.

You just have to think differently than everyone else.


Passive Income

In the simplest terms, passive income is money made after the time and effort to create the product is completed.

For example, let’s say you are a photographer. You have an idea to create an online magazine about butterflies. You fly around your country for one month and take pictures of all the exotic butterflies you can find.

You create the website and a subscription section on it. For $9.99 a month, readers can get access to see your exclusive butterfly pictures.

Every time someone buys a monthly subscription to your online butterfly magazine, you get $9.99. Let’s say in the first month, 25 people sign up to your website.

25 subscribers x $9.99 = $250.00

What if you added 25 subscribers every month in the first year.

300 subscribers x $9.99 = $3,000.00

For one month of work, you generated $3,000 of income. 25 subscribers per month is pretty low. What if you were able to add 10 extra subscribers each month for the year?

That would be 960 subscribers at the end of the year. each one pays $9.99 a month and that generates $9,590.40.

Well, more like 95% Passive

To be fair, it’s not totally passive income. After you take pictures of your butterflies you still have to promote your website, make sure it’s running properly, deal with customer service, etc.

But for literally one month out of the year, you created something that can make you money for a long time. And that income gives you the time to create more valuable content that will earn you more passive income.


 

Before we get into how you can create passive income streams like the butterfly example let’s talk about another way you can make money online and live in Brazil.

Freelance Lifestyle

Freelancer – A freelancer or freelance worker is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term.

Freelance life is the future for most of society. I don’t want to scare you but there is a technology revolution happening outside whether you realize it or not.

There is an invention that will change life as we know it today.

What is this invention?

Robots.

Don’t laugh. They are coming to take your job.

The latest White House economic report just released information predicting that anyone who makes less than $20 an hour has an 83% chance of losing his or her job to automation in the future. There is a 31% chance if you make between $20 to $40 an hour.

 

I’ll repeat that.

If you do not make more than $40 an hour your job might be gone in the future.

It’s real. It will happen. If the robots don’t take your job, cheaper labor overseas will.

And your STEM degree is not immune either:

A phony STEM shortage and the scandal of engineering visas — how American jobs get outsourced

Automation is very likely and many jobs will be lost because of it. The best solution is becoming the very best at what you do and creating your own job.

Smart people are already becoming entrepreneurs and freelancers. They are preparing for the future.

They are signing up to sites like www.upwork.com and www.guru.com. Even Craigslist is a great way to find freelance work.

I’ve used Upwork in the past and the process is easy.

  1. Sign up
  2. Fill out profile
  3. Apply to jobs
  4. Take online tests to show skill (like a social media marketing test for example)
  5. Wait for employers to contact you back if you meet their requirements and agree to a contract/pay
  6. Get paid after the work is completed

 

People are becoming independent contractors and working for companies like Appen and iSoftstone.

Freelance work isn’t entrepreneurship and you still can get fired and replaced. You still might have to work many hours (depending on the freelance job you do) and not get paid what you are truly worth.

But at least you have more freedom and options. You can work remotely and live in Brazil as a freelancer.

What type of work do freelancers do?

  • Build websites (Coding)
  • Copy writing
  • Internet marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Consulting
  • Designers

These are positions that can be done all online. People are already living the digital nomad lifestyle and even joining the New Rich, a term popularized in Tim Ferris’ book 4 Hour WorkWeek.

Freelance work isn’t passive income (copy writing could be), but it’s better than being at a dead-end job in a city you don’t want to be in, right?

Resources

Freelance sites: Upwork, Guru, Freelancer , 99designs, GetACoder

How do I become a: copywriter, coder, internet marketer, content marketer, consultant, designer


 

Blog vs. eCommerce Store

Freelance life is okay but if you are like me, you would rather go all out on making money online.

If you going to put in the work and time into making money online, why don’t you go all in and create something that makes you money even when you aren’t working?

Starting an online business makes sense because:

  • You can make as much money as you want. You aren’t limited by pay per hour or a salary cap.
  • Anybody can start an internet business. Whether you are an 18-year-old college student or a 50-year-old man.
  • It’s cheaper than starting a business offline. I have no idea why people are risking going thousands of dollars in debt opening a physical store when they can start an online business for $100 or less.
  • Competition is less than you think. I’ve heard people say it’s hard to compete online. Really? So, you think it’s less competition offline where companies have hundreds of job applications to choose from?

Making money online is realistic and it’s the most logical way to earn a living today and in the future.

There are two types of websites people create to make money: Blog & eCommerce Shop


Blog

An example of a blog is this very website, Rio In A Week.

Depending on your skill set and passion for writing, a blog like this may be up your alley. I love to write and I love the topic I write about so it’s pretty easy to do.

A blog usually informs a target audience about a subject they are interested in.

  • The Art of Manliness is a self-improvement site that teaches men how to be better husbands, fathers and brothers.
  • Shut Up And Go is a travel site targeting young people who travel on a budget.
  • John Doe Bodybuilding is a fitness site showing men how to get buff by any means necessary.

And blogs are all about CONTENT.

You write about a particular topic and you write EVERYTHING you can think of about it.

The cool thing about starting a blog that can become an online business is that you are doing many jobs.

Remember those freelance careers?

A blogger has many of those skills. You write, you design, you market, you code. I’ve paid for a little help along the way like my Rio In A Week logo, but 98% of what you see on this site has been done by me.

And it wasn’t too difficult. You can do it too.

Bloggers do a lot of content marketing and copy writing. I’ve learned so many online skills that I could do various freelance jobs now.

If you have a passion about a topic that is profitable and you can write in-depth about it-think about starting a blog.


eCommerce

A lot of people are making thousands of dollars only selling products online and avoiding writing content. An

example of an eCommerce site is The Marathon Clothing store founded by my favorite rapper Nipsey Hussle.

 

Nipsey Hussle not only has a physical store in Los Angeles, he also sells clothing online to reach a wider audience. He understands the power of an online store. His fans want to wear his clothing worldwide.

 

While Nipsey is traveling the world on tour, his online clothing store sells shirts, hats, his

music and other accessories.

Nipsey makes passive income from work created years ago. His passive income gives him time and opportunity to make more streams of income.

An eCommerce store is right for you if:

  • You hate writing or you aren’t good at it but you still want to start an online business.
  • You really don’t have anything to write about. You are a young guy and you aren’t knowledgeable on anything that is profitable.
  • You have a product already and you want to reach a wider audience. Maybe you create music, write comic books like The Origin of Aaron Jackson or make hats.

Amazon, eBay and Craigslist show people are addicted to online shopping.

Online sales in the U.S. are projected to reach nearly $500 billion by 2018. Why don’t you get a little piece of that?

NOTE: Many eCommerce shops actually have blogs for traffic purposes. A blog with informative articles about the products you sell can get organic visitors from search engine sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you absolutely can’t write or don’t want to learn how to get organic traffic from search engine optimization, you can always hire a freelance SEO/content writer.


 

Your Niche

Niche website – a website focused on a specific sub topic within a more broad topic.

Cool Shad, I want to start a blog but what can I write about? What can I sell? Everything that can be created has already been done. And I’m really not an expert at anything.

Wrong

It’s true that you can’t really compete with big websites with millions of visitors each month. General audiences are already fulfilled.

You want a site where you can buy toilet paper and the new Katy Perry CD at the same time? Amazon

You want to create the hottest forum about Hip Hop, Sports and other general topics? The Coli

You want to blog about celebrity gossip and harass famous people? TMZ

But there are smaller, more specific topics you can work with.

Quality topics you can find niches in:

  • Travel
  • Fitness/Health
  • Beauty
  • Dating/Sex
  • Money
  • Home & Garden
  • Electronics

Want to write about fitness? Create a blog specifically about calisthenics or kettlebells for out of shape guys who can’t get to the gym everyday or can’t afford to.

Are you a dating expert with experience with all types of women? Start a blog telling guys how to get BBW chicks and the best online dating sites to meet them.

Instead of selling everything like Amazon, just sell quality toilet paper to businesses in your area.

You like to talk about Hip Hop? Pick a particular rap niche like 1980s Hip Hop artists and write detailed articles about their career, the 1980s rap culture they created and where they are now. You would get tons of traffic from old school Hip Hop heads around the world.

If you are only in it for the money, pick a niche targeting women like affordable hair products or leggings and do your research on it.

If you want to make money, sell to women

If you thought women loved going to the mall, watch them buy random items on the internet at home. Women shop online for fun when they are bored.

There’s money to be made. Go get it.


 

Income Streams

Being location independent is all about income streams baby. Diversifying your money. The average millionaire has seven streams of income.

Not one job. Not two. Not three.

Seven ways he makes money

You can assume that a couple of those streams deal with online money. So, what exactly do people do to make money on a blog or eCommerce site?

Let’s look at a few ways you can make money online.


Affiliate Marketing

If you have a blog like Rio In A Week, you can write content while also doing some affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a great way to not only give value to your audience, but also to make a little commission on the side if they choose to buy the item.

For example, let’s say you bought this great pull-up bar that is getting you in great beach body shape for Rio de Janeiro. So, you join Amazon’s Affiliate Program (which I am in) and you write about this pull-up bar.

You write a review titled, “Get In Beach Body Shape: Pull-up Bar Review”.

You go to your Amazon Affiliate page and get the link to paste into your review like this.

 

You pick the product you want to write a review on and paste the link into the article.

 

You publish the review and the link is embedded like this: ProSource Multi-Grip Chin-Up/Pull-Up Bar, Heavy Duty Doorway Trainer for Home Gym

Every time someone clicks on your link and buys the pull-up bar, you are paid a small commission. Amazon starts off at 4% commission.

There are way better affiliate programs on the web. It really depends on your niche so pick a profitable one to blog about.

Are you learning Brazilian Portuguese or know someone who is?

Then check out an example of an affiliate article. My latest review of the best online Brazilian Portuguese course: Semantica Portuguese


Advertisements

You can get paid from advertisements just like TV. Your blog is the television show. But is your blog Family Guy or The Cleveland Show?

Advertisements are only money makers if you have enough website traffic. You don’t need thousands of visitors everyday but no one is going to pay you to advertise their company or product unless you have enough people visiting your site.

Let’s say you do have the traffic and you don’t mind putting ads on your site. Then create an ad media kit like this example:

live in brazil

Geralin Thomas’ site only has +11,300 monthly visitors but is able to attract advertisers based on its niche (women over 40 and home owners).

You also can make money with ads via podcasts and YouTube.


eBooks

If you really like writing then this passive income strategy is excellent. You write an eBook one time and it can make money for years (as long as you promote it).

And the cost to create one is low.

You can write fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, comics, manuals, etc. If you are an expert on a particular subject, write a how-to book about it and upload it to online bookstores like Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and iBooks.

Average writers are making thousands of dollars a month writing romance novels and erotica.

The days of waiting for a publisher to give you a book deal is over. You can make good side income with self-publishing.

But don’t forget to blog about your book. A few people write eBooks and forget about creating a blog to promote it. I don’t mean a free WordPress.com blog, but a website with a .COM domain on your own hosting like Bluehost.

Don’t make that mistake if you do decide to write eBooks.

An eBook that made over $100,000 in passive income: http://rickmulready.com/evernote-essentials/


Online courses

Teachers realize the evolution of education and they are moving their class lessons to the web.

Like I mentioned before, Semantica Portuguese is the best Portuguese course online and they can reach a wider audience by teaching Brazilian Portuguese on the web, not just in person.

And unlike a traditional language class that would cost you hundreds of dollars for one semester, Semantica only costs $20 a month. I know people who pay $20 for a one hour webcam lesson. Learners are attracted to online courses that are educational, fun and affordable.

You don’t have to be a certified teacher to create an online course. You just have to know more about the topic than the person you are teaching.

Parents aren’t mathematicians, but they can help their children with 6th grade algebra.

Create an online course one time and sell it on your blog while you live in Brazil. Then do it again.

Resources: https://teachable.com/


YouTube

A lot of you are already familiar with how people make money on YouTube. It is actually one of the best ways to build an audience, promote your website/products and make money from video advertisements.

It’s like killing two or three birds with one stone.

Check out my favorite fitness YouTuber Chris Jones at Pump Chasers.

In every video Chris publishes, he promotes:

  1. His Pump Chasers clothing line
  2. Links to his social media accounts
  3. His Beastmode training service
  4. His supplements
  5. And of course, his YouTube channel


Subscription Box Companylive in brazil

And finally, the subscription box service. This has been a hot trend for a while and some people are making thousands of dollars doing it.

Basically, with a subscription box company:

  1. You pick a niche and create a box filled with goodies about it – let’s say you create a Brazilian subscription box filled with Brazilian candy, Brazilian facts, Brazilian souvenirs, etc.
  2. You set up a subscription site so people can subscribe to your box
  3. You can offer monthly subscriptions or offer more options like 3 month, 6 month or even 1 year subscriptions
  4. Every month, you ship out the box and collect your money

Starting off, this business model is not passive at all. You will be working a lot. But if you are doing it right, you can eventually outsource your role to someone else.

Check out the Wet Shave Club subscription box company. The founder goes in-depth about how he generated $100,000 in 6 months.

I really like the statement he made about coming up with ideas for a subscription box. He said, “Look at your credit card bill and write down every item you buy monthly.”

Granted, he came into the subscription box game with a little money and was able to buy the website from the previous owner who was failing. Still, many people are not starting a subscription box like him.

Owlcrate is another subscription box company targeting the Young Adult novel demographic.


 

One Idea

Claudia is the wife of entrepreneur James “Choose Yourself” Altucher. She wrote a book called Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are The Currency Of The 21st Century.

I didn’t read the book but James and Claudia have talked about it so much I think I get the gist of it. Everyday you have to think of new ideas. No matter how stupid you think they are, you write ideas daily.

The Altuchers recommend writing down ten ideas a day. After a week, you will have 70 ideas. In a month, 300 ideas.

The theory is: the more you practice something, the better you get at it. You won’t think of a good website idea until you think of many bad ones.

After 300 ideas, don’t you think you would have at least 1 good idea?

You only need one idea to get started. One idea that is good enough to create a blog or eCommerce site about. I think you can do it. My first idea is Rio In A Week. But I have many more already cooking in the oven.

If you seriously want to visit or live in Brazil anytime you want, you will take action and stop dreaming about it.

Warning: Making money online is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s not going to happen overnight. And it takes hard work and discipline. On average, it takes two years for a returning visitor to support you. That’s why you must start today.

I want to see more guys doing what they want, when they want. Don’t just watch others put in the work. Run this marathon with me.

What ideas do you have? Comment below and let me know.


If you enjoyed this article, want to make money online and live in Brazil (or another country) like me, subscribe to the blog and get updated on part 2 in the series: The Set-Up.

In part 2, I write in detail about:

  • How to pick the perfect domain/website name
  • How to create a decent looking website
  • What sites and resources to use while getting started
  • The first steps to building a readership
  • How to plan your content around your niche

Learn from the mistakes I’ve made so far and follow this marathon!

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