Online Business for Boomers
Online business for boomers is, more often than not, successfully realized by keeping things simple. While the kids may be grown up, being 60 or older yourself, does pose several challenges to thriving as an Internet entrepreneur. Let’s delve into how to overcome those challenges.
Who You Are
As a parent, the job never ends. You worry about your children constantly, you continue to be a teacher in & for their lives, you help them make ends meet, you provide them with assistance whenever they’re in a bind, and, in some cases, you co-parent their children (or babysit regularly, at the least).
In sum, life isn’t easy, even in retirement. And, of course, it’s even harder for those still employed. But work, or working, rather, isn’t something you’re immune to. Your age might have made you weaker; it might have made you slower as well. But with every year on this planet, you’ve grown wiser. And online business, more than anything, takes wisdom.
Wisdom allows you to make smart decisions, thus helping you to save time, reduce the effort threshold (i.e., preserve energy), and increase your bottom line. You must know by now that intelligence shouldn’t be measured by the number of skills you’ve learned, but, instead, by what you’ve mastered that produces tangible results. You likely aren’t as concerned with what others think (particularly of you), and so your level of emotional intelligence might have also risen over the years. And, finally, at this point, you have a heightened amount of empathy for individuals who treat you kindly (and maybe those who don’t); this makes you a better, more reliable communicator (and, naturally, more trustworthy), too.
So, you’re good. You have everything you need (and then some) to do well in your future or current online business. Now, let’s move on.
The Technical Side
Boomers, despite having been born decades before the advent of the commercialized Internet as we know it, tend to fear it. While having lived through every minute, they fear the constant changes (i.e., the quick evolution of both code and social behaviors, not to mention what’s currently popular or profitable), often leaving themselves with feelings of being ill-prepared, as though they weren’t the OGs of this era.
Regardless of whether they were late to get on board (i.e., start surfing the Net), they experienced every single trend brought forth by the Internet. Previously, though, the contrast with reality (or reality prior) was less apparent, because online business was, for the most part, conducted using traditional means. The good news is that today, in 2024 (and, hopefully, beyond), we’re seeing a return, a re-emergence of sorts, to simpler times… Times when people treated each other well, respected one’s privacy, and, while coming to expect an elevated standard of quality/support, were tolerant of the occasional mistake (made by both companies and individuals).
So, in this present moment, you need to begin applying your wisdom. And that starts with making the first smart decision which ultimately leads to any & every fruitful online business — the decision to get started (and not look back). Confusing rhetoric aside, you’re ready.
First Steps
All e-businesses require three elements:
A domain name
Web hosting
A website platform
Fortunately, 2 and 3 (and 1, in some cases) from the above-mentioned list can be taken care of by a single entity, namely a website builder. There are several options available, but we use & recommend this.
Eventually, you may want:
Email marketing capabilities
An unbranded video and/or audio/podcast player
A private members’ area (to complement publicly-available content)
But, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. We are, after all, just getting started, and, once again, need to keep things as simple as possible to focus on the following (almost exclusively).
It should be noted that this latter list of features is sometimes included as part of the website builder (as in the case of our recommended platform).
Content
You need to treat your content like it’s a money-maker, because it is, indirectly. We can’t get into the more advanced technical aspects of inbound marketing within a single article such as this, but we can confidently state the following when trying to narrow down the topic:
Content plus website referrals (i.e., links directed toward your site [either the Home page or another page within your site] from non-competing, yet theme-related websites) equates to traffic.
That being said, while they form the backbone of potential traffic, you should concentrate only on content at the onset (and perhaps indefinitely). Some may find greater success by excluding link-building entirely, given how tedious & time-consuming a process it is. Acquiring links (also known as backlinks) requires a high level of organization, persuasion, and patience… and the ability to handle rejection; you basically need to be (or act as) a salesperson.
With content creation, you’re essentially tapping into a more intuitive side — sharing your professional skills, formally/informally-acquired knowledge/education, and/or artistic background with the world (or, specifically, a targeted audience). Call it being a thought leader or positioning yourself as an authority within your chosen niche or other, but the fact remains, you’re creating content from scratch. And you do this through the usage of words (in text, audio, and/or visual format), images/graphics, and/or moving images (i.e., video) to amplify whatever messages/products/services your visitors are searching for that you have to offer to your industry.
A positive about links, regardless of your strategic path, is that they tend to follow naturally (i.e., organically) when great content is posted regularly. This, in turn, facilitates the content in getting shared via & throughout social media, and even having your pages listed near the top of the editorial listings (i.e., free listings) of major search engines whenever users conduct searches utilizing relevant keywords (and keyphrases).
Monetization
Monetization is obviously of utmost importance. Content gets you traffic, but you still need to monetize your traffic consistently as a means to render this initiative a viable online business.
Online money-making methods include:
Placing ads (of theme-related products/companies you’re affiliated) in prominent areas of your site (eg: sidebar[s], announcement bar, pop-ups, etc); upon clicking, you can direct visitors to the products themselves or a dedicated landing page describing your association with the product(s)/company in question
Having a Services page for your consultancy or private practice
Having a Products page to represent an e-commerce store (selling your own physical or digital goods [whether manufactured/developed in-house or not] — or those of others as a distributor or retailer)
Hosting a Membership section for selling subscription-based, premium, gated content
Number 1 truthfully is the simplest monetization model to implement & manage. And you don’t need to be an inbound marketing guru to do it. Register a domain name, map it to your site (and website platform), put up a Blog page, place ads (including affiliate programs initially, and sponsorships [i.e., paid-upfront monthly advertisements] with enterprises you’ve formed a strong partnership with eventually), and then just publish articles like it’s going out of style.
Hire us if all of the above is overwhelming.