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As entrepreneurs, our work doesn’t stop just because the kids aren’t going to school (my wife is a teacher, so she’ll be home, too). One of the main benefits of what we do is being able to decide when we work less or want to spend extra time with those that matter most to us.
Yet, we still have to pay the bills.
In this post, I’m going to separate our “6 ways” into 3 ways to prepare and 3 quick things you can do while working less to keep the money coming in.
The easiest way to prepare for vacation is to do as much as possible before you disappear. Any of these 3 will give you the ability to detach from your computer or phone and enjoy time with your family.
This is what your autoresponder is for. Many of us fall into the daily mess of jumping into our autoresponder and sending out a new broadcast email every day.
Yet, the autoresponder is designed to deliver messages when you’re not there.
Write a series of emails to cover the days you’re not going to be functionally working. Make sure they’re going to go out at the right times and wait for the payment notices.
If you’ve got a majority of your audience on social media, Buffer is about to become your best friend.
It allows you to schedule posts to all of the big social networks (including Instagram).
If you’re going to run a promo to your email list, Buffer will give you the ability to schedule social posts to go out at the same time as your emails.
Most importantly, they have a free version you can use to see how you like it before signing up for the “business” version.
If you do any regular blogging, you’ll want to ensure you’ve got some posts prepared before you head off.
Combine an email in your autoresponder and a blast on your social networks and you’ll have a promotion machine working for you while you’re off having fun.
What if you want to take the kids out for a crazy Hibachi dinner that’s going to cost you $200 and you’re low on cash and credit after buying gifts?
Any of these 3 will give you a cash infusion to do something extra during vacation.
To get attention over the holiday time, you better do something worthy of people’s attention.
In the “Internet Marketing” space, there isn’t a single launch between 12/24 and 12/26 due to Christmas. I’ve never seen it happen before.
Usually there is one marketer with a killer offer over the holiday. Not this year.
It’s a huge risk to invest a bunch of money, time, and attention into a product to launch at a time where people are supposed to be hanging out with their families.
Yet, if you’re the only one with a live offer at that time, you’re going to get eyeballs.
Why?
People will still be staring at their phones when they get bored.
If an email comes in talking about your product, you have a chance to get sales.
The key with a promo over the holidays is to give a crazy deal or something groundbreaking.
If it’s your product, cut the price or stack on extra bonuses.
If it’s an affiliate offer, throw in some personal 1-on-1 help. Most people won’t take you up on it, but make sure to politely let people know you won’t be available to help until after your vacation ends.
Whether you’re promoting an offer or have products of your own that you sell, you’ve built an email list of customers and prospects. Most of our customers send our traffic to a squeeze page (as they should).
An ad swap is where you and a friend with a similar list size agree to send out a promo for each other. You email your list suggesting they check out your friend. They do the same for you.
No money has to involved.
As long as you can both create a similar amount of clicks, this is a win/win.
If you don’t have any friends you can do an ad swap with, you can buy some of our traffic instead.
Finding a new audience and creating an offer is quick? Not really, unless you have the technology to back it up (Shopify, OptimizePress, or LeadPages).
The idea here is to build an offer or product that you can put in front of people that are nearly guaranteed to buy it.
An example for me would be anything related to Deadpool. Facebook has figured out that I like Deadpool, so the T-shirt that I saw with Deadpool and a unicorn nearly got me to grab my credit card.
Generally, T-shirt campaigns won’t pay out quickly, so the only way for you to sell them would be to find a print on demand company willing to send products to your customers, then set it up on something like Shopify.
Again, not a quick cash infusion…
However, this will work if you have things you no longer need. Video games? Go to Gamestop and sell them. Fashionable clothes? Find a Plato’s closet and sell them. Got a computer you don’t need or use? Offer up a crazy deal on Craigslist.
I wouldn’t suggest selling things that matter, but most of us have tons of things we never use. If you’d rather have cash in your pocket, get rid of the stuff you don’t need.