I learned how to make money in retirement purely by accident, by doing what I was doing in my daily life.
One of the things I like doing – a lot – is talking about the things I am passionate about and helping people in areas that I have a bit of knowledge in. There is an added spin-off to this in that I speak to like-minded people and always learn from them.
I have a golf coaching diploma and think I am a pretty accomplished photographer. Not the best ever at either but pretty confident in my abilities and feel I can contribute to most discussions.
I talk about my two passions fairly often and find that people are interested in what I have to say and even, at times, blindly taking my advice – for example buying a particular camera I rate.
It’s quite flattering and humbling at the same time. I don’t want somebody to spend money on rubbish that I have recommended so there is a level of responsibility there.
Jump to …
Connecting and Sharing With Friends on Social Media
I’ve had a lot of fun over the years on social media and find FaceBook a fantastic way to keep in touch with family and close friends since emigrating from South Africa in 1999.
But there’s another side to social media; the ability to help people anywhere in the world. And it was this side of social media that set me on the path to creating some extra income – I’ll explain in a little while.
While working in a camera shop in Hamilton, New Zealand, I had people come into the shop and ask for me because they had seen something I had posted (or commented on) in one of the local FaceBook pages.
An innocent and genuine comment to help someone often lead to sales in the shop.
The same thing happened on FaceBook.
A contact in another country might see something I posted about golf, or photography, and ask me a couple of questions. A few days later they would be back to thank me for helping them out and to advise that they had bought exactly what I had recommended.
It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to help someone but …
Everybody was benefiting from my experiences, knowledge and recommendations – everyone, that was, except me!
Retired Folk Have A Lifetime of Experiences to Share
At about the same time I was playing about with a few ways to make money. I thought doing something online in my spare time would be fun.
The mistake I kept making though was to try and make money in the shortest possible time – like buying in to get-rich-quick schemes, all of which were too good to be true. I really should have known better.
After burning some money in a very short space of time I soon realised that 99.99% of these schemes made money only for those who created them by catching suckers like me!
I had recently discovered Internet Affiliate Marketing as a potential online business. From this discovery I landed up at Wealthy Affiliate University and what I read there made a lot of sense to me.
As it was free to try I had nothing to lose by trying it out.
They didn’t even have my credit card details so there clearly was no catch that I could see. And that is the way it turned out to be.
Within 3 days I had decided to give Internet affiliate marketing (IAM) an honest and full go for a couple of months and signed up.
Of course I had no idea where to start and, as usual, got ahead of myself instead of diligently following the detailed training.
In my haste to make money I made mistakes – plenty of them and had no idea how much these mistakes set me back in time.
Instead of trying to help people my focus had shifted to “making money” and I went in for the kill – “buy this driver to cure your golf slice” or “this is the best camera for portraits” etc.
All wrong of course because we all know the cure for the golf slice is in the golfer’s swing – from grip – stance – take away – downswing – follow – through and finish.
It has NOTHING to do with the driver!
Likewise a camera is of little use if the photographer doesn’t understand how light works or how to get the most out of his gear or to compose an image.
Getting back on track with the lessons on offer at WA I was soon gaining a lot of traction.
I had no possible way of knowing what a big difference IAM would ultimately make to my life.
It was new, it was exciting and it was invigorating.
Eventually I realised that to generate some extra income I had to return to being myself – continue to give like-minded people honest and sincere advice and they would support me.
And they did.
“Give A Man A Fish and Feed Him For a Day … “
“… Teach him to fish and feed him forever” – I just love that saying.
But here’s something I saw this morning which made me smile.
It’s related to affiliate marketing and how you can make money in retirement around the things you love doing:
And that is exactly how Internet Affiliate Marketing works.
Help someone get started in fishing (or whatever they are passionate about) and they will buy all the peripheral stuff through your sincere efforts to guide them in the right direction.
If you can give people an honest opinion from the depths of your heart based, on your own knowledge, they are more than happy to act on your advice.
All my life I have been involved in sales and adopted an approach of doing what I would do if I was in the customer’s shoes with my knowledge and experience.
This approach builds trust and sales will inevitably follow.
People like dealing with people they can trust.
Reach All the “Fishermen” of the World
The beauty of the Internet is that you can reach out to like-minded people anywhere in the world.
Social media is one way of doing this – albeit limited to the number of contacts you have, a lot of whom aren’t “fishermen” or likely customers in your chosen niche.
A far more effective way to reach like-minded people is to create a niche specific website.
“Create a website?” I hear you scream.
Yes a website – very easy to do these days with a WordPress Platform. Here’s a quick tutorial and video showing exactly how easy it is to build the basic site.
I had no idea how to build a website when I first started and way back then you needed to learn some coding – not anymore you don’t.
By building a niche specific website you will attract potential customers to the site. You will be talking to the exact group of people you are reaching out to.
You could add a dedicated FaceBook page for that specific niche to your arsenal and so increase your exposure.
With a website instead each of your posts will be read by potentially hundreds, or even thousands, of fishermen and any number of them could land up buying a truck or a boat.
And you get paid when they do!
Learn the Ropes, Build a Solid Foundation
I wish I had taken the advice first given to me to knuckle down and learn to crawl before I tried to run.
There is no way you can build anything without the proper foundation and IAM is no different – it takes time to build a house that won’t fall down.
Wealthy Affiliate University is the place to learn everything you need to know and more.
They show you in great but simple detail each step you need to take to get you going. It ultimately becomes as easy as writing a letter to a good friend.
Read my full review here on what they offer and what you will learn here: My Top Recommendation.
Wealthy Affiliate has been going since 2005 and has trained hundreds of thousands of students how to become financially successful Internet Marketers.
Although the core training is centred around affiliate marketing the spin-offs are numerous and you will learn many, many ways of making money online without having to expose yourself to a large capital outlay or financial risk.
And if you are a fisherman, photographer, golfer, woodworker, artist, gardener, traveller or just alive then you have something to share with thousands of people worldwide.
Why not take advantage of that and have some fun while you make money helping others?
Earn money while “fishing” … I do.
Conclusion – I’m busier than ever before (having fun)
The funny thing about retirement is that you never retire – you get busier.
People may ask you what you do all day but the real question is how on earth did you manage to do everything when you worked?
Retirement should be the time when we enjoy ourselves, it should not be a time of going into your shell and curling up to die.
What do you think – is something like this for you?
Let me know your thoughts below – I’d really like to hear from you.
NO FISH OR ANY OTHER ANIMAL WAS HURT IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS WEBSITE.