As many experts expected, a second wave of COVID-19 has hit. This has led to a new lockdown in many areas of the country. For most people, this has also led to cabin fever and stress. It’s easy to feel like a prisoner in your own home when you’re not allowed to leave. However, you can make the best of a bad situation. For instance, instead of looking at the lockdown like you’re a prisoner in your home, look at it as an opportunity to educate yourself and build something. Below are four ways to do just that.
Stock Market Training
The stock market can be a scary place for traders. That’s because some people lose their entire life savings in a short period of time. The primary reason for this is because most people are greedy. They want to get rich quick, which leads to high-risk investments. Emotion is another enemy. If a trade they made isn’t working, they’re likely to bail out and move to something else, but this approach leads to accumulated trading fees. Even if a few of these trades were to be successful, the trader will have to pay short-term capital gains tax, which can range anywhere from 10% to 37% depending on their income.
In order to avoid this path, start with paper trading. This means you’re not investing any real money or paying any trading fees. With practice and patience, you will learn that making money in the stock market is about investing, not trading. You will also learn that the winners keep winning. After you train yourself for a while and see what does and doesn’t work, then you can try investing in the stock market. An important tip is that the more you practice, the better you’re going to be with the real thing.
Start Your Own Blog
A blog is usually based on a hobby. Let’s say you love to play poker. You might not be the best player in the world, but you understand the basics, you have a deep passion for the game, and you have the ability to engage readers with your writing. If that’s the case, start a blog. You can do this by playing online poker and then writing about your sessions. You want to avoid writing technical hand-by-hand reviews.
This is not new because everyone does it and readers will find it boring. Instead, write about player characteristics of your opponents. Write about where they are from and write about any drama that happened in the chat box because of the way someone played a hand. Whatever your blogging about, avoid technical. You want to engage readers. If you can gain some momentum with a blog like this, you can then use live poker room sessions. At that point, you have more interesting stories to tell and you gain a following. Once again, it all starts with practice.
Start Your Own Vlog
Let’s stick with the poker theme for simplicity purposes, but this can be applied to any hobby. Instead of using a blog vs. a vlog, use both. Use the vlog to complement the blog and see which one leads to more traffic. Once you figure that out, you will know which one to use more. When you a vlog, be sure to use different backgrounds. Go outside for more variety. Also add movement when you can. Viewers love movement.
Write A Book
Let’s say the blog/vlog combination has been a success in regards to building an audience. If that’s the case, you now have an opportunity to make money selling books. Take all of the content from your blog and put it into book format. After you format the book for paperback and Kindle versions, you will be ready to submit to Amazon at no cost. One key step here is that you will have to remove all content from your blog so Amazon accepts. You can’t have that content online for free. From this day forward, you will add new content to the blog and focus more on the vlog.
Once your book is accepted, post a link to the book on your blog, vlog, and all social media platforms. Ask people to leave reviews, which is the #1 factor in book sales. Once you have some positive reviews and a high rating, sign-up for ACX, which is an author platform for audio books owned by Amazon. You can find a narrator on ACX on a royalty share deal so there is no cost to you. Once approved and complete, your book will be on Audible and iTunes.
