Do you want to earn some extra money each month? Have you ever wanted to make a living from home? You can make a living online while living off the grid. Making a living off grid and online is much different from making money while living off the grid. It’s not the same thing. Sure, making money is about making a living, and vice versa. But making a living while you’re actually living off the grid on your homestead is much different. If you could live off the grid and work from home at the same time while making a good living how much is that worth to you?
This article is the beginning of an ongoing premium content members only “how-to” series all about “How To Make a Living Off Grid & Online“. (Don’t worry, we’ll continue to create awesome off grid content, and bring you the latest off grid news and information for you in the magazine as well. We’re simply adding this as a bonus because so many people have wanted to know how to make a living online while they’re also living off grid. It kind of goes hand in hand and frees you up to spend more time with family or travel or do what you love.)
Set your own schedule, make your own hours, work when you wanted to work, spend time with your family when you want to and not have to schedule your family them around work time. We always say “Family comes first” but then we put work before them and spend more time working AWAY from them rather than spending that time with them.
Some folks will argue that they are working FOR FAMILY and that justifies the time spent away from them. But is that true? Is that how it’s supposed to work? I don’t think so anymore. I think we’ve lost our focus. I think work and bills have made us focus on the wrong things. If family comes first, then why are we spending so much of our time working? To “Provide for our family!”? Maybe, but I think that idea is gone. I think people have forgotten why they’re working and have fallen into the “work first” trap.
Family should be our priority. When’s the last time you sat down and had dinner with your family? No, I’m not talking about McDonalds on the couch while watching a movie and the kids are pecking away on their smartphones texting their friends. I’m talking about quality family time. Where’d the “suppertime” go? If you’re still doing that with your family then good for you! That’s awesome. But too many families want to get that time back with their family and they don’t know how to do it.
Imagine being able to spend more time with family, and make more money than you’re making now. What’s that worth to you?
It’s possible. Online. With the internet.
YES! Before you start yelling at me about how it’s not possible to be off grid and online. You ABSOLUTELY can still be OFF-GRID and “online” at the same time. It seems counterintuitive but it’s really not when you realize that being off grid simply means you’re disconnected from the electric grid, you make your own electrical power through solar and wind power systems and you store that power in a battery bank. Simple really.
You can still have communication (which is the internet and your smart phone).
See how that works?
Some folks (purists) will continue to argue the point and they will insist that if you’re online you’re not off grid. They also usually completely miss the point that they are arguing against being online and off grid WHILE THEY ARE ONLINE AND NOT OFF GRID! The irony of that is lost on them of course. They’re not even realizing they are purists and they’re pushing their own PERSONAL opinion and idea what THEY think off grid should be. They literally are making up their own definition of off grid living and trying to make everyone think the way they do.
So, yes! You can be off grid and online at the same time.
You could do a number of things to make a living off grid like my article 17 Ways To Make Money While Living Off Grid which gives you a list ideas on how to make money while living off grid.
This ongoing How To Make a Living Off Grid & Online series will go into detail about how to do it online. The series is ongoing and will continue to teach you how to make a living online from the comfort of your off grid home.
To make a living online and off grid, not just some extra cash, you need enough money to pay the bills, all the bills and ideally have some left over to have fun with. You also want to have enough money to not have to work 40, 50, 60 to 80 hours per week.
The goal here is to have the TIME to spend with your family and the money to be financially independent.
That’s what off grid living is about!
So lets get started.
First and foremost you need an internet connection, a smartphone, and a laptop or desktop computer. These are requirements to start. High speed internet is better and will allow you to get to work faster and is more efficient.
Find your niche! This is probably the most important part. Choosing the right niche (market industry) is vital to your success. If you choose a niche that’s too competitive it’ll be difficult to get started and break into that market and you may get discouraged. Choose your niche based on what you know and what you love.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What’s your passion? Find your passion. What is it you LOVE to do? Find something you love to do, something you’re good at. Something you know more about than most people. Then ask the next most important question.
NOTE: Some business consultants will tell you NOT to pursue your passion. They’ll tell you not to pursue a business in your passion because your passion may not be marketable and you might get burned out and turn your passion into a bad thing. Don’t listen to these people because they do not have your best interests in mind. They failed. That’s why they say that. They are projecting their own failure on you. So realize that you MUST be passionate about what you do to stick with it. There is a point at which you must choose to stop if it’s not working of course…but that is a personal choice and if you recognize that time when it happens, that is a positive, not a negative. Don’t listen to people who would tell you otherwise.
- Is it marketable? In other words. Do people want or need what you’re passionate about and can you sell it? You need to be able to sell your product or service whatever it is.
NOTE: Don’t worry about selling if you’re scared of it or don’t want to be “pushy” or push your product or service on people. Instead, realize that there are MILLIONS of people out there that you can HELP find your product or service you offer. You are HELPING PEOPLE find what you have to offer. You’re not selling…you’re solving their problem. You’re helping them find what they need. - Next. You will need a domain name (this will be your brand) and a blog or website. This is not imperative but it helps. You can make a living online without actually having a website.
You need to figure out what you want to sell. Is it a product or service? Will you ship physical products or will you create downloadable content for your customers? Do you like arts and crafts? Do you make soap, bath and body or home and garden products? Do you have a recipe you’d like to share?
Do you want to make money online? In my years as an internet entrepreneur I’ve built and owned multiple successful eCommerce websites, blogs and online businesses, which may be utilized services such as Mectronic. I’ll go into brief detail about each one to give you some ideas on how you can do it too. These are in no particular order of importance, only the order at which they come to mind.
Let’s get started.
#1 Google Adsense – (advertising) Work Level = 4 out of 5 stars – This method takes a good amount of time and effort to build your audience and drive traffic to your site unless you use Facebook and Google PPC advertising to drive traffic. You can also use social media to drive “free” traffic to your site.
You can make good money online with Google Adsense. If you don’t know what Adsense is it’s advertisements you can place on your blog or website. Google will then pay you each month. You’re paid money each month based on how many ad impressions and clicks you get on the ads. This means that the more traffic you get to your website or blog the more money you will make potentially. This is a great way to make a passive income. You can build a very nice monthly passive income with Google Adsense. It takes some work upfront and time building your blog, creating content, and driving traffic. If you focus on the long term and not just quick easy money then you can build a site or multiple blogs in multiple niches that will continue to generate a passive income for you every month. To do this focus on SEO (search engine optimization) for long term traffic, specially on Link building services. Write high quality content and create search engine friendly articles and news item and you’ll be rewarded with higher rank in search engines. This equates to more traffic long term and that translates to money in your bank account.
If you’re new to blogging you’ll need a way to get traffic to your blog. To start out getting free traffic to your blog
PRO TIP: Technically speaking there’s no such thing as “free” traffic because you either have to spend time or money to get it.
Adsense is more of a passive income than the other ways to make money listed here. It’s also more long term and niche specific. You’ll need to pick a niche, build your blog, create quality content, drive traffic, and have your ad placement setup to maximize your monthly revenue. In the long term this can make you a good passive income each and every month.
If you’re more of a risk taker you can drive traffic to your blog with PPC advertising through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social networks. In the beginning though I’d suggest just making posts, make videos on Youtube and put a link to your site in the description. Your primary goal is traffic because the more traffic you can drive to your site the more money your will make.
#2 Shopify & Amazon – (eCommerce) Work Level = 3 out of 5 stars – This requires a significant amount of work to get up and running and to manage. You have to have good customer support, fast shipping times and be able to choose products that are sellable and profitable. eCommerce has the potential to make you a millionaire if you do it right. Follow those who are already successful, copy what they do, emulate them, sell and make sure your profit margins are high.
Shopify is an awesome eCommerce platform to generate income and you can do it without stocking inventory or shipping products if you use some of the drop shipping programs out there. Drop shipping is when an order fulfillment company ships your customers orders to them rather than you buying and stocking inventory yourself. There are some drawbacks to this model, but many online entrepreneurs are using drop shipping to make $10k, $100k, and $1 million dollars per month in sales. Oberlo is a drop shipping service that works with Shopify as a plugin App. It allows you to choose products that are drop shipped direct from China to your customer. You don’t have to order or stock inventory yourself. You simply pick the products you want to sell, click a few buttons and the product is automatically added to your Shopify store. This frees you up to advertise and drive traffic to your store allowing you to focus your effort on sales. Here is also a carbon offsetting solution for Shopify using this Shopify carbon offset app here. Check out for more info!
You can also order product yourself from Alibaba.com. You can ship it yourself and handle all the orders yourself. But why would you do that unless you just want to control everything? This does make sense as you scale your eCommerce biz because there’s only so much you can outsource to other businesses to get the job done. Outsourcing the work can get expensive though and that cuts into your bottom line, but it’s much cheaper and more cost efficient than warehousing and shipping the products yourself.
There is a 3rd option. Starting an Amazon store and using Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). I haven’t used this service yet but have 2 websites (businesses) that I will be switching over to Amazon FBA service. Amazon has perfected eCommerce, namely the logistics involved in getting product to the customer. They are the best in the world in my opinion. Jeff Bezoz, the founder of Amazon, is the richest man in the world so it’s clear that Amazon knows what they’re doing when it comes to logistics. Amazon has it’s own eCommerce platform and will ship products for you. It’s an all in one service. All you have to do is source the products from China, manufacture them yourself, ship them to Amazon and focus your efforts on driving traffic and customers to your store.
I’ve made over $300 a day in sales using Shopify and I love it. But what most people won’t tell you is that that $300 though isn’t $300 in profit. It’s $300 in gross sales. This is the number that most Shopify store owners won’t tell you. You can make good money on Shopify. People have become millionaires by selling products on Shopify that they sources from Alibaba and AliExpress. These are like China’s version of Amazon and Ebay. Oberlo is a drop shipping App that works seamlessly with Shopify to help you add and manage products in your store. When you sell a product you simply process the order through Oberlo and it ships from China to your customer.
A word of advice. If you’re using Shopify and Oberlo just know that you really need to pay attention to shipping costs, fees, and methods. To make a profit you ideally need to pick products with a 3X to 10X markup. Otherwise you may lose money. I’m not saying this to discourage you, I’m just being real. be smart. Make sure your profits are high enough to make the work and effort you put it worth it.
Check out Tanner J Fox on Youtube….he does an awesome job selling on both Shopify and Amazon. He’s a 21 year old millionaire! He knows what he’s doing when it comes to eCommerce. He’s proof that it’s possible to become a millionaire by setting up your own eCommerce store.
I’d like to tell you I’m a millionaire from selling on Amazon and Shopify. I’m not. Yet. I’m on my way to becoming a multimillionaire this year however.
I’m at 6 figures now and on my way to multi 7 figure income in the coming year.
You can start for very little money upfront and the rewards are high.
PRO TIP: Choose products with a 3X to 10X markup! Don’t pick products with low margins. You need enough room to make it profitable. 3X is good, 10X is better!
PRO TIP: Choose Passion Products – Make sure you choose products that OTHER PEOPLE ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT! Don’t choose products you like. This is probably one of the single biggest mistakes new eCommerce store owners make. They choose products based on their likes and they wonder why they have no sales. Always choose products based on the market and what other people are passionate about.
#3 Digital Products – (i.e. eBooks and digital magazines, members only content) Work Level = 3 out of 5 stars
This is how I make a large portion of my income. By creating digital products and selling them, either downloads or selling access to the content. It’s not a passive income but the profit margin on a digital product makes it well worth the time and effort to create quality digital products to sell.
You can also create your own affiliate program so other affiliate marketers can sell your digital products as well by publishing your digital content on Amazon and Clickbank. Both platforms allow marketers to sign up and sell your content and you pay the marketer a commission on each sale. This helps free you up to create more content and focus on sales.
BONUS #1 – Membership Sites
This is similar to the digital content income stream but content is behind a paywall rather than a download and it’s published on a members only site or within a members only area on your blog. You can have a public blog with free content which is optimized for high ranking in the search engines with a way to capture email addresses and build your email list, and then you can have a members only area which you charge a monthly subscription fee to access.
BONUS #2 – Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is simply when you sell other people’s products and services and get paid a commission for each sale, lead, or email list sign up etc. Amazon and Clickbank and the largest and most notable affiliate programs and affiliate services online, while if you’re interested in doing marketing you can also buy agency backlinks that are perfect for your business.
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