The Laptop Millionaire review

July 8, 2012 By 1 Comment

The Laptop Millionaire
I just finished reading The Laptop Millionaire: How Anyone Can Escape The 9 to 5 And Make Money Online
and it was so good I just had to review it!!!
I am not sure if you are reading my blog because you plan on traveling long term with your family, or if you happen to be homeschoolers, but either way I am going to imagine you would probably like to work as little as possible and from your laptop.
I guess most people would!
Mark Anastasi has done something that has not really been done since Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek: he goes in depth into how to create an income online. Most books I have read on the topic on making an online income just give you ideas as to what you could do online, ie be a consultant or write ebooks. They don’t give extensive links and resources nor go step by step.
The Laptop Millionaire does, which is why I am so in love with it.
Here is a gander at the table of contents.
Chapter 1: eBooks
Chapter 2: Listbuilding and Email Marketing
Chapter 3: Search Engine Optimization
Chapter 4: YouTube
Chapter 5: Facebook
Chapter 6: Twitter
Chapter 7: Fiverr
Chapter 8: Outsourcing
Chapter 9: Local Business Marketing
Chapter 10: Membership Sites
Chapter 11: Webinars
Chapter 12: Online Advertising
The book starts out with Marc divulging that he was once homeless, a Greek immigrant living in an abandoned building in London. He had been laid off and was living off of a tiny amount of money he had on his already maxed out credit cards. He happened to go to a free personal development seminar and sat next to a man that is the subject of the book, the ‘laptop millionaire’. The two hit it off and later Marc called him and asked him if he could help train him as to how to make an income online, and quickly.
Supposedly, Marc created an specialty ebook that was priced somewhat high ( as it was niche material) and sold it on Clickbank. Because he had done proper research into what to write about and with the help of the laptop millionaire, he made 10,000 in his first month. If you are not familiar with Clickbank, what it is is an online marketplace for sellers to put their virtual courses, books, etc and for bloggers and other types of people to sell what is listed. They are known as ‘affiliates’ and they make a generally good commission per book/eproduct sold.
What intrigued me was how Marc had no list, no traffic or audience to market to: he just leveraged clickbank by getting other people to sell his ebook.
Clickbank is very hit or miss, what is needed is what Marc did, proper research on what sells. Programs like Google Sniper ( which I am not a fan of, personally) discuss the importance of doing research into what sells before writing anything, instead of just choosing your own random topic and writing on that. Research is the key component.
The next segment of The Laptop Millionaire delves into list building, and after that how to succeed with SEO, aka how high you rank in google for a given search term . I happen to despise SEO but I know enough about it to be very intrigued with what Marc discusses regarding long tail keywords. This means keywords that have a lot of people searching for them, but are very low in competition.
The topics that really intrigued me and that anyone can do are making money from social media. Not like a spammer, either. Marc interviews tons of men and women who use sites such as twitter and facebook to make an income. This is where he really goes in depth, and gives plenty of resources. Giving twitter as an example, several people started twitter accounts on a popular niche, such as say weightloss or Lady Gaga. They grow their twitter account rapidly with people interested in said topics, using tools such as Tweetadder ( which I use and love) and buying targeted followers off of Fiverr. When they have about 10,000 followers or more they occasionally tweet relevant affiliate links or they use it as a way to get traffic to their blog or site to increase their list. Marc doesn’t recommend actually tweeting one’s affiliate links but many of the people he interviewed in fact did do this and it made them great income, right away. A similar format is done regarding facebook, building a fan page using Facebook ads and a few times a week putting up affiliate offers.
People tend to be weary of making it known they have affiliates, which is why the majority of us don’t make a ton of money online. In my opinion, if someone happens to be promoting something I like,  and it is not in my face every time I am online, I don’t mind it at all. I enjoy supporting friends and people I like and especially if it is relevant to me. For example, on twitter I follow several game sites that give me updates about new games in the genres I like that are available in their store. I appreciate them doing this as it lets me know what is available.
Where people go wrong with affiliate links and social media is that they can get obnoxious with it, by either over doing and NONSTOP tweeting their affiliate products, and/or tweeting affiliate stuff that is not relevant to me. These people frequently get marked as spammers, which they are.
However, social media is a great way for people to make a great income if done well and by using the links from Laptop Millionaire. That is where the book excels: with the resources. I can’t tell you how many great sites I have found since reading the book. Animoto is my favorite site now!!
The book really hits home that traffic equals income. Traffic can be tricky to get. You could have the best blog ever and have no traffic. He gives plenty of tips on how to get more visits per day and more ‘opt ins’ to your mailing list. And none of them are sketchy. Webinars, for example, are a fantastic way to provide your audience or online community with great information.
All in all I think Laptop Millionaire is a must read for any wannabe digital nomad. He doesn’t give just one way, but many and with so may resources and interviews. I have read one complaint that he mentions his blog too many times but to be honest with you I like that he does because he actually has prerecorded interviews on there with the people he mentions in his book, like a single mom who was laid off and right when her benefits were about to expire started making money with twitter. Another review said he endorsed spamming but that is completely not true, he makes it very clear that that is not what he does with his social media ( he uses it like many of us do, as a way to communicate with our audience and increase our traffic) and even the people he interviews that do tweet affiliate links do it in a proper, non spammy and relevant way.
One of the other most exciting things that the book discusses as a viable income source is running social media for local businesses in your area. You may think ‘ well don’t they know how to set up a Facebook account?’ and the short answer is not really. Maybe they have a profile, maybe a Twitter page, but are they really using it correctly? How are they ranking on google? Are they easy to find online? You would be stunned. The majority of businesses have very little online presence and are struggling with marketing, big time. Old school marketing is uber expensive and just not very successful.
On another topic, one entrepreneur mentioned something that I struggle with:
‘One of the key issues raised by numerous successful business people I’ve interviewed is that we can get overwhelmed with choice and end up trying to do too many things rather than focus on one business building/money making strategy and sticking with it until we succeed. Reading this book, I was inspired by the many ideas and options but I also got overwhelmed and scattered my focus.’
Honestly, focus is hard when it comes to the internet. Where I have gone wrong and where I feel many others do as well is just not focusing on one business model. Instead I get excited about various ideas…and end up doing none of them or just doing some of each. The key is focus, to find what gels well with you and to follow that. I think Laptop Millionaire gives plenty of lucrative suggestions to mull over and decide what interests you.

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Comments

  1. Brian says:
    August 6, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    Hi Elizabeth thank you for your review of the book. I have read the book and I learned so much from it!!!
    I’m already pumping up my current businesses using methods listed in the book and immediately started a new business the same day I finished the book because I instantly saw new opportunities right in front of my face after reading the information in the book!

    THE NUMBER ONE THING I LEARNED in the book which caused me to take action on a new business immediately after I finished was on page 65 of the book. He listed http://www.RegistryCompass.com as a site where you can find expired domains that have hundreds or thousands of backlinks already and that still get traffic. I had never heard of this service but went there and it was like seeing a pirates chest of GOLD! You can do so much with this service it isn’t even funny. I have spent so much time in the past building up backlinks and gaining traffic and this service allows you to skip over YEARS of work!!!

    Once again thanks for the review and thanks to Mark for sharing all his secrets.

    Reply

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