In this report I will answer the question, what is the best online business for retirees?
My name is Dan and I am an American. I am 60 years old. I am too young to collect social security. So I needed to keep working. But I didn’t want to work for anyone else. So I started an online business a few years ago. That business made $6500 last month.
I am going to show you screenshots of that business and the money I made. But first I want to tell you why I started an online business. I left the USA in 2007 and I have traveled all over the world during the last 14 years. I will show you my travel photos as I talk.
I don’t buy roundtrip tickets. I keep moving forward. I have lived in or visited 67 different countries so far. During the first 3 years living outside the USA, I had a regular job.
I loved that regular job at first. But then I started getting bored. I wanted something more. I read a book called “The Four Hour Work Week,” by Tim Ferris. That book taught me that I could start an online business and travel all over the world.
The book opened my eyes. I didn’t have to wait until retirement age to live my dreams. You see, I already knew how to live on very little money all over the world. So I just needed the online business to make enough money to support my travel dreams.
I spent the next 6 years doing everything wrong. I am going to tell you what is the best online business for retirees. But first, I want to warn you. I want to tell you everything I did wrong so you don’t waste your money on expensive courses as I did.
Don’t Take Expensive Online Training Courses
I spent more than $7000 taking online courses. None of them turned out to be what I needed to create my perfect online business for retirees. The money lost wasn’t the biggest problem for me.
The bigger problem was the time I lost doing everything the courses taught. The money wasn’t completely wasted. I learned what doesn’t work for me. So I am going to spend one minute on things you should not do before telling you what worked for me.
Physical Products
First I tried the physical products business. I took a super-expensive course (around $4000 USD) that taught me how to sell physical products online. I imported products from China and sold them online. Technically, I was successful.
I listed my products on Amazon as the course teaches. I followed the steps in the course and I was successful. It was almost time to reorder another thousand units from China. But then I learned that Amazon was changing its warehousing policy.
Amazon would limit how many units I could inventory in their warehouses. I might have to keep products in my garage to avoid paying warehousing fees. That was a big problem for me. I like traveling. I didn’t want to fly home from the USA every few months to ship products to Amazon.
Then I started Googling other problems that physical product sellers have with Amazon. I read all sorts of stories about how Amazon has made changes over the years that upset their physical product sellers. I didn’t want to be in business with them anymore. It wasn’t a good fit.
Affiliate Marketing
Next, I tried affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is when you review someone else’s products and you get a commission if people read the review and buy the product. The problem is, you need a large number of people reading your review and buying the product before you make enough sales.
I took another expensive course, around $1000 USD. I followed what the course taught. I put up a funnel and advertised the funnel. Nothing. It was a dud. The writing was on the wall, but I didn’t give up easily. I spent a bunch more money advertising on Facebook but never made a single dollar.
You see, when your funnel, webpage, or YouTube channel is new, nobody is reading it. You need what Google calls “Authority” in the subject matter domain in order to be awarded top positions in Google searches. So your offer doesn’t come up in searches.
So Affiliate marketers spend hundreds of dollars, even thousands of dollars, to get their reviews in front of the relevant audience. This is one of the most complicated businesses on the Internet. I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars in advertising to win in this business. So I gave up. I didn’t want to learn a complicated business requiring a high investment while I was nearing retirement age.
What is the best online business for retirees?
The online business I am going to show you is the digital information business. Here is why I believe it is the best business for retirees to start.
One. No Inventory. You don’t need to import anything from China and ship it to Amazon. You don’t need a shipping and receiving department. No returns, no repairs, or replacement of physical products.
Two. No Delivery Costs. When the customer buys, they just download the information you are selling, such as eBooks, newsletters, or watch videos.
Three. No Advertising Costs. You just post webpages and videos online and people discover you organically in their Google searches. In fact, if your YouTube videos get enough views, YouTube will start paying you each month.
Four. No Employees. No payroll, no hours, no training employees, no turnover of employees. You are the only person in the business.
Five. No Office Expenses. No rent, no mail correspondence, no phone, just correspond with your customers by email.
Six. No Hours. Just work when you want to. You have to immediately respond to customer service requests but you can create content at your own pace.
Seven. Low Start-Up Costs: You can get the business started with almost money. You just start posting YouTube videos in your information niche. Once YouTube starts paying you for views, you can use that income to pay for the third-party software we teach how to set up in the course.
Eight. No Geographical Limitations or Boundaries. You are free to roam the world as you grow the business. You do not need to show up at certain times and places.
Nine. You Get To Share Your Favorite Hobby. The information business can be about anything. But, in the Hobby Income Course, I suggest you share information about your favorite hobby. Why? Because you already love doing your hobby. So it will be more fun for you to share that enthusiasm you have for that subject matter. But you could also pick any subject that you know more about than most people.
Ten. No Expensive Courses. New or existing paid members of my information business, have access to my course as a bonus at no extra charge. When membership prices change in the future, existing memberships are frozen at the lower price. Here are the membership choices.
How I made $6500 with My Hobby Last Month
Please watch the video at the top of this page to see the screenshots of my hobby business show the money I made from Youtube and paid memberships.
The short story is that I travel the world and post videos and eBooks about the best places to retire cheap in paradise. People enjoy my content and many buy memberships to my eBooks.
Last month (May 2021) YouTube paid me $2717 as my share of what they collected from people that paid to advertise on my videos. My membership income for my eBooks totaled $3822 for May 2021.
If you sum the two sources of income, I made $6539 for May 2021.
So if you ask me, what is the best online business for retirees? In my opinion, digital information products is the best business for retirees to start in retirement.
Since I am free to live life on my own terms during retirement, I believe this is the best online business for retirees.
Click any of the links below to find out more about My Retire Cheap Reports, My Free Ebook, My Membership Program, and My Hobby Income Course.
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the YouTube Channel for VagabondBuddha.com. The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?