By Nicholas

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Greetings. Necessity is telling me that I need to dream more creatively. I need to come up with a lifestyle that will:
1) Earn me sufficient income to make ends meet, and perhaps have a little bit left over.
2) Gives me freedom with security.
3) Allows me to work the hours that I desire, and therefore give me a chance to pursue other interests.
4) Has relatively low overheads

Well I am a Project Manager of reasonable note, so I should break this “Laptop Lifestyle” Project down systematically. Below is the Waterfall Method — a well known methodology for System Development Life Cycle.

Waterfall model 2I said that Part One (last blog) was the contemplation stage and I said that Part Two (this blog) is the Planning Stage. Let us break this “Laptop Lifestyle for the older gent” Project into five stages.

The five stages for the Laptop Lifestyle project could be:
1) Requirements (or contemplation) — What I hope to achieve and why.
2) Design (or Planning) — Make a Plan.
3) Implementation – Implement the plan.
4) Verification (or Testing) – Test that the plan works.
5) Maintenance – Fine tune the plan. Adjust things as needed.

Well, that leaves me to make a plan. I might cheat. I wonder if someone has a plan on the Internet that I can copy and modify?
In my wild brainstorm I have come up with five ideas:
1) Set up Affiliate marketing. Here I find a niche area, recommend products and receive a commission. Sounds easy — but I bet it isn’t.
2) Online Trainer. I am a tutor. Set up Training courses online that are better than the old Correspondence School.
3) E-Books. Create and sell E-Books.
4) Article Writing. Write articles under contract
5) Blogging. Write blogs to help sell my above products.

All of this sounds a bit romantic. On reflection, I am lucky, because I can do all of these things. However, other people who like the idea of the “Laptop Lifestyle” can do what they are comfortable with, and hire people like me to help them in areas they don’t feel so comfortable with.

Sounds like a bit of work ahead of me — but exciting. I am fortunate. I am a trainer with 27 years experience, and I have written many training courses. I think I can adapt to 2), 3), 4) and 5). Yes, use my talents.

What about 1) Affiliate Marketing? I have decided to follow the advice of Mark Ling of Affilorama. Be careful — I am NOT advocating that you purchase his products. I would need to try them first.

However, I do advocate that you look at his free lessons for a start. They will give you a good start, and can be found at www.Affilorama.com/lessons

Laptop Lifestyle 2For more blogs please go to www.NicksDigitalSolutions.com and choose Nicks blog.

For E-Learning material, please go to www.NicksDigitalSolutions.com and choose E-Learning Shop and, in particular, the Pathways to Success or the Seniors option.

Nicholas (Nick Thorne) is the founder of NicksDigitalSolutions Limited a company that specialises in Education and Training; ICT Consultancy; Infopreneur; and Writing. He lives in Levin, New Zealand.