RomsDeals CSUN Presentation
- 1. Traveling Smart and Turning a Hobby into a “Business” Cal State Northridge By Rom
- 2. Topics • What is my “business”? • Turning a hobby into a business • How you can start traveling smart
- 3. What Is My Business Hobby? • Teaching others about earning and using travel points and miles to travel smart.
- 4. How it started • Started collecting points and miles over 2 years ago • Wanted to save on our honeymoon. • Opened several rewards credit cards to earn points and miles.
- 5. How it started • Earned thousands of points by meeting credit card bonus requirements.. • Used airline miles for free flights and hotels. • Hooked after first trip on points and miles.
- 6. What Is My Business Hobby? • Showing people how traveling can be affordable. • Hawaii for 25,000 miles and $5 per person.
- 7. What Is My Business Hobby? • Black Sand Beach in Maui
- 8. What Is My Business Hobby? • Educating people about using a good credit score to your advantage. • Maximizing every dollar spent with credit cards. • Reviewing and analyzing credit cards. • Travel consulting.
- 9. Travel Consulting • Helping people plan trips and honeymoons. • Example: Planned a honeymoon trip to Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean. $100 per person and credit card points from 2 credit cards. Retail value: $2,000
- 10. Travel Consulting • Helping people use points and miles for complicated and unique trips. Example: Los Angeles to Hawaii to Korea to Taiwan and back on one ticket. $100 in taxes per person.
- 11. Travel Consulting • I also book complicated and multiple-stop tickets for myself. $100 in taxes per person
- 12. Why I Enjoy Blogging • • • • Interactive Being part of a community Sharing with people something practical Inspiring people to travel
- 13. Why Do I Collect Points & Miles? • Visiting friends and family around the world.
- 14. Why Do I Collect Points & Miles? • Staying in Hawaii with hotel points. (18,000 Hyatt points/nt)
- 15. Why Do I Collect Points & Miles? • Experiencing international first or business class using airline miles.
- 16. Why Do I Collect Points & Miles? • Helping people make happy memories.
- 17. Why Do I Collect Points & Miles? • Experiencing awesome hotels with hotel points.
- 18. Why Do I Collect Points & Miles?
- 19. 11 Days in Europe for $500 • Collected over half a million airline points and miles with credit cards. • Paid $500 out of pocket per person for airline taxes and hotels • Stayed mostly in 4-5 Star hotels
- 20. Paid $1,000 for $40,000 of Travel
- 21. Half a Million Points from Credit Cards
- 23. London
- 24. London Eye & Big Ben
- 25. German Alps
- 27. Questions?
- 28. Turning a Hobby Into a Business • • • • What do you enjoy? What is your skill and expertise? What do others care about? Is it profitable? Things you Enjoy Profitable $$$ What Others Care About Sweet Spot
- 29. Turning a Hobby Into a Business • Things I enjoy – Traveling/saving money • What others care about – Good deals on travelling • How can my blog be profitable? – Affiliate marketing, consulting, advertisements, etc. Things you Enjoy Profitable $$$ What Others Care About
- 30. Turning a Hobby Into a Business • What others care about? • • • • Explaining something complicated in simpler terms. Solving a problem. Example: Traveling is too expensive. Goal: Proving that travelling can be affordable.
- 31. Turning a Hobby Into a Business • Passion and Skill are key • Benny has a passion for language learning • Benny’s skill is learning languages quickly and has a proven teaching system • Identifying the problem • Learning languages is too hard • Solution • Developed a system of learning languages fluently in 3 months • www.fluentin3months.com
- 32. Turning a Hobby Into a Business • Leading by example • I explain which credit cards I used to earn points, how many points, and how I booked each trip. (Trip Report)
- 33. $100 to Start a Blog • Started a blog in October 2012 • Paid $10 to buy a website domain at Godaddy.com – www.Romsdeals.com • Paid $80 for a website host on Hostgator.com • Used Wordpress software - No HTML or designing skills required • Started writing about deals and traveling
- 34. Trial and Error • Lots of trial and error in the beginning stages. • Topics were too broad and didn’t draw enough visitors. • Narrowed down my topic to a specific niche.
- 35. Niche Market • Definition: subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing. • Example: Cooking > Organic Cooking > Organic Vegan Cooking • My Niche: Traveling > Budget Traveling > Budget Traveling with Frequent Flyer Points
- 36. Growing my business • • • • • Requires LOTS of time and effort – I blog 4-5 times a week. Connect with top notch bloggers and constantly interact Social Media – Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/RSS feed CONTENT , CONTENT, CONTENT Search Engine Optimization – Content Marketing
- 37. Monetization • Several ways to monetize a website • • • • • Google Adsense Affiliate Marketing E-books Selling products Consulting
- 38. Google Adsense • Most popular way to monetize a hosted website. • Advertisers bid to show in your ad spaces in a real-time auction. The highest paying ad will show on your site. • Choose where to put ads on your website. • Based on traffic.
- 39. Google Adsense • Most popular monetization method on Youtube • Companies bid on ads on Youtube. • Pay varies - $.70 to $7 per 1,000 views.
- 40. Affiliate Marketing • Affiliate marketing is type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. • Example: Amazon pays 3-6% of products sold through their affiliates.
- 41. Affiliate Marketing • Niche website on affiliate marketing • www.bestadjustabledumbbells.org • Reviews adjustable dumbbells • Amazon affiliate program % on each sale • Reports $500 a month
- 42. Affiliate Marketing • Smartpassiveincome.com • Creates multiple niche websites • Teaches how to create niche websites • Lots of affiliate marketing – recommends tools and software to start a monetized blog or website • Reports $50,000 per month.
- 43. E-books • You can write e-books on your topic and sell it. • Need a good readership first. • Nomadic Matt sells guides on backpacking the world for cheap.
- 44. Questions?
- 45. How you can travel for a few dollars • Start building credit slowly by using credit cards responsibly. • Apply for a good rewards credit card, get sign up bonus. • Apply for more credit cards slowly.
- 46. Myths about Credit Cards • Common Myth – Too many credit cards is bad for your credit score. • Response – Many credit cards when paid in full and on time increases credit score. • Common Myth – Paying with debit cards are a better option that credit cards. • Response – Paying with debit cards does not show that you handle debts responsibly. Using and paying off credit cards improves your credit score.
- 48. Credit Score Components •MOST IMPORTANT TIP: PAY BALANCES IN FULL AND ON TIME (65% of score)
- 49. Improving Credit Score Slowly • • • • Become an authorized user to a parent’s account (AMEX). Retail Credit Cards – Remember to pay Apply for a no fee credit card and keep forever. Credit Score is about proving you can manage debts well.
- 50. Improving Credit Score Slowly • Wife had a credit score of 711 before signing up for credit cards. • Applied for 4-5 credit cards over two years. • Applied for a car lease. • Paid credit cards and car lease in full and on time. • Credit score increased.
- 51. Why Credit Cards? • Banks are offering the highest credit card sign up bonuses in years. • Quickest way to earn points and miles without travelling. • Credit Card Churning – Method of applying for multiple credit cards, unlocking bonuses, and strategically closing credit cards. • Earned over 2 million points with credit cards.
- 52. My Credit Score • Applied for at least 20 credit cards over the last 2 years. • Paid in full and on time 100% of the time.
- 53. Disclaimers • Traveling for free sounds enticing, but requires the following: • • • • • Income (part-time job) Organization Discipline Living within your means Financial responsibility
- 54. Disclaimers • Only do what you can handle or manage. • Missing a payment or not paying in full can damage your credit score. • Earning airlines miles and hotel points can be time consuming. • Award tickets subject to availability, must be flexible.
- 55. Helpful Tools • Mint.com – Manage finances all in one place.
- 56. Helpful Tools • Awardwallet – Manage all rewards accounts in one place.
- 57. Helpful Tools • CreditKarma – Free Credit Score
- 58. Best Credit Card for College Students • Chase Freedom – $100 for free after spending $500 in 3 months. • Rolling 5% Categories each quarter – 5% off Amazon Q4 • No Annual Fee ever • Points Transfer to Chase Sapphire Preferred, which transfer to airline miles.
- 59. Best Personal Credit Card • Chase Sapphire Preferred • 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points ($500 in free travel) after spending $3,000 in 3 months • Points transfer to United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Hyatt, British Airways • Best and most flexible points program • Used Chase Ultimate Rewards points to travel to Europe on business class and flights to Hawaii • First year annual fee waived, second year $95
- 60. Fast Track Spending • Amazon Payments – Transfer $1,000 a month for free to another person through a credit card • Charging everything to credit cards • Paying for parents and relatives and have them pay you back • Wedding spend
- 61. Avoiding Annual Fees • 2 Options • Cancel card after first year, and move credit line to another existing credit card. Little impact on credit score. • Call and ask for a retention bonus (waived annual fee or bonus points)
- 62. More on Credit Cards • Lots of other credit card options including hotel credit cards and airline specific credit cards. • Check out my HOT credit cards deal page, start here guide, and my sponsored credit card page.
- 63. More on Credit Cards
- 64. My Travels Using Points & Miles • A week in Kauai – Paid $10 for airfare, 2 free nights Hyatt Kauai • 2 weeks in Italy and France – Paid $100 per person for business class airfare • 1 week in Oahu and Maui – Paid $10 for airfare, 3 free nights Hyatt Waikiki • 11 days in London and Germany – Paid $300 per person for first class flights and $100 per person for business class. Free hotels for each night • Future – 11 days in Taiwan and Japan – Paid $2.50 for business class and $75 for first class per person • Future – Bora Bora on points and miles
- 65. Resources • The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau • www.millionmilesecrets.com – points and miles blog for beginners • www.thepointsguy.com – full-time blogger about points and miles • www.romsdeals.com – my blog about points and miles • Email me at Rom@Romsdeals.com or tweet me @Romsdeals
- 66. End