Can Baby Boomers Succeed in an Online Business?

While it is true that very few of us who went to college in the 60s or 70s majored in Computer Science or Management Information Systems, we have all become somewhat familiar with computers. We have nearly all worked on them at our place of business and have our own computers at home. We can at least do word processing, prepare our taxes and surf the internet. These are the only requirements for operating an online business to supplement retirement income.
I actually cannot think of a better business for baby boomers than some type of online business such as internet marketing. One of the things that we lose is our mobility and ability to get around. I do not care if you are confined to a wheelchair or one of those scooters, you can still move in close to your computer and work away. It is much better than going out and fighting traffic, finding a parking spot, get into your office and reverse the process at the end of the day. Besides who wants to work in some type of suit or dress. It is much more comfortable working in your den in a bathrobe.
I do not personally do this but many baby boomers are active on the various social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. It allows them to keep in touch with their families and friends as well as to make new friends. This allows for a wonderful network with which to get help or even advertise ones business. There are also many forums and blogs in which seniors can participate. The internet provides an almost endless supply of information for the startup entrepreneur.
One of the things that seniors are concerned about is keeping their minds sharp. Being active online is excellent for doing this if nothing else. One can develop hobbies online and research virtually anything.

Writing as a Part Time Job

Many of the ways to supplement retirement income discussed to date have involved starting online businesses.  There are certainly more traditional ways of earning money part time.  If you have a flair for writing, there are always many people looking for writers.  Bloggers often hire people to contribute to their blogs.  Many online marketers rely on article marketing.  They submit articles to various article submission services in order to build backlinks to their websites thus increasing traffic. If you can research and then write numerous articles around a specific keyword, this might be something to look into.  Usually, you will have to produce 20-30 articles in a week or two.  These articles are typically 300-600 words.  The going rate is $10-12 per article.  I have personally written dozens of articles and it really isn't terribly difficult, an article this size generally takes 25-40 minutes each.  Other writing jobs available include writing for magazines, newsletters and sales pages.  If you are interested in writing, check out the following website.  They will discuss the type of jobs available and how to apply.
http://d6be3n-3y47tgveh0ex7w9mmr3.hop.clickbank.net/

Baby Boomers Tempted to Draw Early Social Security

According to Social Security records, an increased number of early retirement claims have been filed in the past year. It isn't necessarily that baby boomers, those born during the years 1946-1964, are retiring, they are just starting to tap into their benefits. Many baby boomers who are lucky enough to have jobs are collecting benefits while continuing to work. For some baby boomers, they may continue working as long as they are physically and mentally able.
Early forecasts called for an increase in applications for retired worker benefits to increase 15% from 2008 to 2009 due to the aging of America. They report actual increases in the neighborhood of 25% through the first 6 months of 2009. Some theorize that the difference is due to the economy.
Once a worker turns 62, a worker can collect a reduced social security benefit and can continue to work. The benefit for a worker at 62 is about 75% of what he or she would receive if they retired at full benefits at 66. Why are they doing this? The most likely reason is the reduction of their retirement portfolios, 401K plans, and other plans. They have also seen their home equities shrink. They need to do something to replenish their income and net worth prior to retiring.
There is a catch, however, those who continue working while receiving benefits, are limited in how much they can earn without being penalized. Earnings are capped at $14,160 per year and anything over that results in 50 cents being deducted from the Social Security payments for each dollar earned. Once the worker reaches full benefits, 66 in this example, there is no reduction of benefits. The other factor is that the worker continues to pay into Social security while working. Fortunately, there is a recalculation of the rates once the person stops working.  All baby boomers need to be concerned about ways to supplement retirement income.

Completing Surveys

There are often ads about how one can earn hundreds of dollars by completing surveys online.  I haven't really spent much time researching this method to supplement retirement income but I have come up with a couple of problems with what I have seen.  Many of these surveys are there to sell you something.  In order to "win" a product such as a gift card, you must complete a few tasks.  Specifically, you must go thru a series of offers and choose a certain number of them. If you were already shopping for these items, that is fine.  Offers are for places like Netflix, record or CD clubs, credit reports and various health products.  The survey companies want you to win chances on a sweepstakes or collect points to win products.  If I am doing a survey, I want money, nothing else.
If you are looking for paying surveys, check out this site
http://www.informationsources.net/

Multilevel Level Marketing

Multilevel marketing, MLM for short, has been around forever.  Who doesn't know somebody who has been involved in Amway, Mary Kay, Shaklee, Watkins or many others.  The problem with those programs was that eventually somebody had to sell and buy  products and, after awhile, everybody had more than they could ever use.  Recruiting and training was all by word of mouth and very tedious.  Very few people stayed in the programs very long.
Today's MLM programs are quite different, yes those other programs are still out there, they involve little face to face contact.  It is primarily done online and the products are not typically household products anymore.  For some, probably most, that might be considered an inprovement.
Over the next month, I will investigate and discuss several such programs including Global Domains International, LGN Prosperity and others.

Click Per Action

We have discussed online marketing, mostly affiliate marketing.  There are other types of products or sevices that a baby boomer might use to supplement retirement income. One such business is Click Per Action or CPA.  In this kind of business, we advertise products or services owned by others.  This is similar to affiliate marketing because it requires no inventory, no shipping and no customer service.  The difference is that no sale is required.  A CPA affiliate gets paid for causing an action.  For example, the only CPA business I have is with a mortgage company.  I bring traffic to my site and get paid for each application that gets filled out.  The person who fills out the application does not have to actually close on the loan.  I simply get paid for the action of the the application being completed and submitted.  It makes no difference what happens after that, I have earned my commission.  The website is
www.americanmortgagemarketing.com/8128

I am looking at a couple more CPA opportunities right now.  I will report back once I learn more.

Five Keys for Being Successful in Internet Marketing

Many people of all ages are getting started in internet marketing, the competition is heating up. You cannot turn on your computer without seeing an offer on how to make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year with your own internet marketing business. One would think that he or she is the only one who is not a millionaire at this point of time. These internet marketers all have their own secret which they would be willing to share with you for several hundred dollars. With some luck, they will even offer to mentor you for a year at a mere $1500-5000. You have to pass their screening process before being accepted. My guess is that their screening process is that you have $1500-5000 available to spend.
Internet marketing is a great way for anybody to earn additional money, especially for retired baby boomers who want to supplement retirement earnings.
Although each has their favorite spin on things, the self proclaimed experts pretty much agree that these are the 5 keys for being successful in internet marketing:
1.Start by selling other people's products, in other words, affiliate marketing. You could be an affiliate for almost any company that you could imagine from Amazon to WalMart. One of the best is Clickbank which handles digital products which have a much higher profit margin than the retail stores.
2.You eventually need to have your own website. You can buy websites cheap enough but you also have to purchase a domain name and arrange for hosting. The process will cost roughly $200 to set up and host for the 1st year. If you would like to do this free, go to my website for a free website selling Clickbank products.
3.You need to build a list. If a customer buys from you once and is satisfied, he will likely buy from you again. You will want to have a squeeze page so that you can capture your potential customer's name and e-mail address before passing them on if you are selling as an affiliate.
4.You will need to have some product to give away to your customer in order to gain credibility. Remember, even though you are selling a product, you are selling yourself. Treat your customers well and they will keep coming back to you.
5.You need to drive traffic to your website. You can pay for advertising but there are many free ways to obtain free advertising such as article writing.

Affiliate Marketing. a Good Place to Start

in Internet (submitted 2010-01-06)
Many newbies to internet marketing face the question of where to start. The answer for many is affiliate marketing. In this scenario, you sell other people's products and you do not need to invest in inventory nor do you need to provide customer service. You neither ship nor handle the products. There are any number of businesses looking for affiliates, you could become an affiliate of Wal Mart or Amazon as examples. You could sell just about anything that you can imagine from clothing to books to furniture to information. I personally sell travel, books, software, watches and information. Information is perhaps the easiest place to start and information certainly allows for the highest markup. If you are selling another person's information, you can earn 50-75%. If you are selling your own information, or information that you obtained the resell rights, you can earn effectively 100%. The site that I am going to send you to offers a free website.This would be an excellent way to start selling information online in order for baby boomers to supplement their retirement income . If you are interested in selling information online, go to http://www.cbglobe.com/

Supplementing Social Security

As more and more babyboomers reach retirement age, they have to make multiple decisions. They need to determine whether they can afford to retire just yet and how they can supplement their Social Security checks. Social security roughly pays recipients 24% of their gross at 62+ years up to 40% at 70 subject to minimums and maximums. The fact that most people's 401K plans have been seriously compromised over the past year or two complicates the situation even more. We all know that even 40% of one's wages is not likely to be enough so let's take a look at some of the options to supplement retirement income:
1. Work part time. That would be just fine except for two problems. Part time work typically pays at or near minimum wage. I don't know about you but I am not about to do very much for minimum wage. The other problem is that part time jobs have been filled by people who no longer have full time jobs.
2. Work as a consultant. In strong economic times, this would be a viable solution for some. Firms facing financial difficulties are not about to be hiring consultants for several years.
3. Start your own business. Most of us can't really afford any type of franchise or other type of business requiring a large downpayment. If you have substantial amounts of cash to invest in a business, you probably aren't reading this anyway.
4. Start an online business. There are some online business that are practically free. You can find out how to get your own website, products that will be dropshipped, hosting, high percentage profits, and a great marketing plan on the following websites.
http://www.informationsources.net/
http://www.cbglobe.com/ See the upper left hand link to get a free website just like this one.

Purpose of this Blog

The purpose of this blog is create a discussion around baby boomer issues leading into retirement and after retirement. As you all know, baby boomers are those born in the post WWII era, 1946-1964. Personally, I was born in 1950. I am 60 years old and still working but making plans for retirement. Like many of you, my 401K has taken a hit over the past couple of years and things are not looking as stable as they had in the past. Most of us will receive social security and some of us will be lucky and have a pension of some sort. Will we have enough of an income to survive? Some of us won't and others who will have enough, could very well be looking for additional income anyway.
The 2 main topics on this blog will be ways for baby boomers to supplement our income and a bit on traveling. I will look forward to your comments and suggestions.