Finding a Niche

So, I’m laser-focusing  my  blog  into  ‘ Achieving Financial  Freedom  in the Golden Age’, meaning, starting working on it only in the rips age of 50++.  This is quite a peculiar age to be as far as just starting to achieve financial freedom is concerned. One may think, this may be too late and normally one would expect that at this age, one would already be enjoying the fruits of financial freedom.

Well, the fact is that there are people who in their prime working years were focused on something else other than making money and wealth building then suddenly realizing or was forced to realize by current realities the 'financial freedom' is a must and a part of one's holistic development and growth. In my case, that something else was working exclusively in government service, "serving the people" like so.  Being in a third world country and having been educated since grade school up to post-college in public schools using government funds, I thought it was my patriotic duty to give and pay back by working in the government. Couple that with admonition from my parents to be socially aware and be on the side of the downtrodden and triple that with the political and economic conditions in this third world country in the sixties, seventies up to the new millennium. And I was made. The notion of personal financial freedom did not cross my mind until I was past fifty. And does anybody ever get rich and wealthy  working honestly in government?

The next question is  -- is there such a viable niche  as starting the quest for financial freedom in the golden age? Are there products , services or programs/strategies and tactics  that specially cater to this niche? For  one thing, time is one factor  that seems to weigh heavily against the age group in the current context.  The target audience would  definitely  include  retirees and would-be retirees who would be depending solely or for the most part on their pensions. Mostly these would be people who depended solely on  their employment checks. Or these could be people who throughout their working lives had small scale business that never  quite took off to success.

In summary  what would be the  most possible profile of  this niche:

a.   50 years or more  in age , so  therefore they do not have the luxury of time and  would  have about one  to  two  decades more to  go  to achieve  financial freedom;               b.  they would be most probably needing  some degree of  reprogramming in their consciousness and mindsets. Most likely they were employees of rank-and-file or middle-management status and would be depending solely on their pensions and life savings for their "retirement years";

c. they could also be small business  owners  whose  businesses never  quite  took off during their prime years;

d. they could  also be formerly  ‘stay-at-home’ moms  who  have now have  time in their hands for some king of economic or money-earning activities;

e. they could  also  be  those   retirees   or  would-be-retirees  who would  want  a  career  change  that will enable them to earn more  money, as the last chance they have, or who do not want to go on actual retirement just yet and would wish to pursue new dreams and plans, or those who at this stage in their lives desire to do what they were meant to do or love to do and  pursue their true calling.
     

Zazzle Store and Amazon Affiliate

As an internet marketing newbie with zero-budget, one practical entry point that I found available to me was setting up a store at Zazzle (pls. see my Zazzle panel above, and check it out). In Zazzle, I could virtually 'create' my own products and sell them on the internet, without being involved in the actual and physical manufacture, shipping and delivery of the products. Zazzle.com does all that. Zazzle also provides promotional tools that will help me in marketing these products. Revenues come to me as royalties or commissions. Fair enough.

What I like about Zazzle is that I can express myself through the creative process without worrying about the capital intensive 'brick and mortar' production and distribution phases. At the moment, the products I've 'created' are geared towards the internal change that I have to undergo -- the growth into the 'abundance and prosperity' mindset and consciousness , which in my case, is a necessary initial step in my financial freedom journey.

Of course, generating traffic to my blog and hopefully to Zazzle is my job and responsibility. And I realize it's not an easy task considering that there are millions and millions of products being sold at Zazzle. But therein lies the challenge. I was thinking, maybe 'niche' marketing is the way to go here.

Another zero-budget income-generating internet activity that I've started to learn and get into is affiliate marketing. I've started with the affiliate program of Amazon.com (pls. see right side panel). And for the time being I'm concentrating on self-development books, business and internet marketing books. It's apropos because at this point, I'm just beginning to learn about business and internet marketing. And for another thing, I love books, per se.

Internet Marketing Workshop

As I start my internet marketing efforts, I have to rely primarily on the internet to learn the basics of internet marketing. I've subscribed to newsletters, downloaded free e-books and listened to mp3's and audio and video tutorials online. Based on these initial learnings I was able to set up this blog, among other blogs, and did start-up steps on my eBay and Zazzle.com stores. At the moment I'm learning the baby steps of affiliate marketing.

One advantage is that these basic lessons are free, which is good for me because I am on zero-budget, literally, for my internet marketing endeavors. The downside for me is that the free stuff are mostly basic and introductory and expectedly incomplete, of course. (I'm very grateful for the free stuff, mark that.) So I'm kind of in a 'chicken-and-egg' situation here. And also, depending solely on my virtual mentors is quite a physically solitary endeavor. It has its great moments, but a dose of "live" learning with "live" mentors would also have its far greater advantages. For one thing, there's the social aspect -- the "live" interaction with mentors and co-learners.

For those in the Philippines or in the vicinity of the Philippines ( or you can fly in from anywhere in the world). Check it out :

Search for Financial Freedom

What I like about my gaining consciousness about financial literacy, the abundant and wealthy life paradigm is that it came after a considerably long period of struggle towards spiritual growth. Now, I’m not saying I’m done with my spiritual growth . I don’t even know where I am now, in terms of my spiritual growth. But I feel a certain level of confidence that I have a viable spiritual footing or background for my quest for financial freedom and the abundant life. Suffice it to say that the beacon light is this biblical admonition – “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all its righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

It was only in my late fifties that I was forced to consider radically improving my financial condition after a bout of credit card crisis and the realization that my financial situation was not viable for retirement. All through the almost thirty years of working in government was the ‘serve the people’ mindset which was inculcated in me starting my high school and college years, mainly because of the prevailing social and political conditions in my country, even up to now. Throw in the erroneous religious mindset that considers mere posession of financial and material wealth as "un-spiritual".

Frustrations arising from my idealistic mindset and the fact that new plans and dreams grew in my mind in the latter years, like travel plans, dreams of owning cars and a Mediterranean-inspired home overlooking Taal Lake --plans and dreams that involve considerable amounts of money, plans and dreams that didn’t occur to me in my younger years and which I didn’t expect I’ll be having in my latter years.

The challenge I’m facing now is achieving financial freedom and abundance and my dreams in the few remaining years of my life ….
Surfing the net for articles that could help me get started one way or another, because, really I did not know where to start, I came across topics like the law of attraction , among others. This led to ideas like reprogramming my mindset from a ‘lack’ or ‘poverty consciousness’ to an ‘abundance or prosperity consciousness’, beyond mere positive thinking.

From surfing the net and reading books, I moved up to attending seminars like the “Firewalk Bootcamp” , which being ‘spiritual’ or metaphysical in nature addressed the inner changes that I needed to undergo. Acting out things and ideas are much more effective than just reading about them. The bootcamp actualized some of those basic ‘prosperity consciousness’ in me.

Although the attention on just making money was the starting point of all these endeavors, I began to realize through reading and gaining knowledge about the money - making process, other dimensions related to making money , notable of which was the concept of a ‘prosperity consciousness' , the idea of a sound and integral character as an adjunct, if not a fundamental basis, of true wealth. Later on, I came to learn and realize that money is not the ultimate end, after all, but a positive and abundant consciousness that cannot really exist without a strong and integral character. That money is just a by-product of the former.

I am also getting to the point when I am becoming an advocate of spreading financial literacy and education, starting from the young, and people realizing and cultivating a positive prosperity consciousness in themselves, as a necessary part of their personal development. In particular, I’d like people to realize that financial freedom or being rich and wealthy is not antithetical to being a person of good character nor to being a spiritual person. The reality is that money is a resource that is necessary for one’s intellectual , mental and physical growth and development,maybe even for spiritual growth.

And just maybe, with this new advocacy, I have not really deviated from my former "serve the people" mindset. I'm just using another channel now --- through change in mindset. 'Serving the people' if one thinks about it, is really an offshoot of serving God. 'Serving the people' , aside from fighting for democratic principles and political freedom, is also about fighting for economic freedom, which ultimately will involve financial freedom.