Never Work A Real Job Again – The Ultimate Guide

Sick of your day job? Want to work where you want, when you want? Preferably, earn more cash too?

Ever since I was asked what I wanted to be when I “grew up”, the thought of having a real job terrified me. I still haven’t grown up and the thought of a real job still terrifies me. If you’re anything like the majority of this blogs readers, you probably feel the same. I get questions almost every day asking how long it takes to go “full-time” trading sports. The thing is, you don’t need to solely trade sports to earn a living and quit your day job, there are plenty other things you can be doing before/during and after learning to trade that will help ensure you never have to work a day in your life again (for someone else anyway!).

I’ve put together this guide to help you achieve the lifestyle that you want. It’s a work in progress and will be updated constantly with new ideas. Some links that I use will be affiliate links. This means I get a small sum if you sign up. I only recommend companies that I’ve used myself. Part of this guide will teach you how to earn from affiliate commissions too!

If you’re new to this blog, you will notice that a few of the options will have links to gambling. As ridiculous as it sounds, there is a whole world of risk free gambling out there that can pocket a nice amount of extra cash each month. If you already bet/trade on sports, you should have a good head start. Remember, gambling isn’t for everyone and ALL of the ideas in the post will carry some form of risk, be it emotional or financial!

Let’s get started…

1. Matched Betting

What is Matched Betting?

In a nutshell, matched betting is a way of making guaranteed profit from bookmaker offers such as “Bet £10, get a £30 free bet” with little to no risk.

How does Matched Betting work?

Using the above example, we would bet £10 on an event. Lets say, we bet £10 on a horse called Fred to win a race using a traditional bookmaker like Paddy Power. We then go to another site (a betting exchange) to bet that the horse WON’T win. The two bets cancel each other out and we are left with no risk, other than a small loss whatever happens. This loss is usually about £0.50 on a £10 bet.

Paddy Power Welcome Offer – Bet £10 Get £30 Free Bet

The race finishes and we lose £0.50 whatever happens, but that’s okay because now the bookmaker has given us a £30 free bet!

We place the £30 free bet on another horse in another race. Just like before, we bet that the horse WON’T win on another website (an exchange, which is similar to a bookmaker). The two bets cancel each other out so that whatever happens, we are left with a guaranteed profit. Usually from a £30 free bet, you can expect around £25 of guaranteed profit.

Using the extremely rough example above, we will be in profit +£24.50 for a few minutes work.

Is Matched Betting legal?

Although it sounds too good to be true, it is perfectly legal. Although the bookies define it as “bonus abuse” and this is against their terms and conditions, it is not illegal to guarantee profit from a free bet that the bookies give you. What you do with your bet is entirely up to you!

How much can I make from Matched Betting?

It is not uncommon to see people making over £10k in their first year.

Bookmakers will always be looking for new customers and therefore, will always be giving out free bonuses. Most people can make around £1000 in their first month (or two) of matched betting and perhaps £200-£400 per month thereafter. Eventually, the bookies will figure out what you’re doing and stop offering you free bonuses. It’s good whilst it lasts though and can help to fund other projects!

How do I start Matched Betting?

There are plenty of guides around the web if you search hard enough. There are also a few free Facebook groups but from my experience they often give quite bad advice. I personally signed up to Bonus Bagging and then moved onto Profit Maximiser (both run by the same guy). Their website looks quite DIY and the home pages are just one massive sales pitch but despite that, they are one of the oldest running matched betting groups around. The Profit Maximiser membership also gives access to their private Facebook group with 6000+ members which is arguably the best part of the deal. There are plenty of people earning big money from matched betting who you can ask questions to on the group. You’ll also be way ahead of the game if any short-term offers or loopholes are found as the group is very quick to spot/share them.

If you decide to sign up to Bonus Bagging or Profit Maximiser, using my referral link will help towards keeping this blog running. If you follow the guides on the sites/groups, you will absolutely make your money back from the cost of the membership and much more. Feel free to try without joining a paid service though if you are feeling confident!

Click here for more information about Profit Maximiser

2. Sports Trading

What is Sports Trading?

Sports trading is quite like stock trading. But, instead of  buying and selling shares in a stock, you are buying and selling bets on sports events. There are lots of different ways to trade sports, a fairly common strategy that beginners take is to “lay the draw”. This essentially means that you are betting that there will be a goal, usually late in a game when the scoreline is 0-0 (or any other draw-score like 1-1, 2-2 etc). A “lay” bet means that you are betting something WON’T happen. This is the opposite to the traditional “back” bet that you make at most bookmakers as you are betting that something WILL happen.

The Correct Score market for a football game on Betfair Exchange. The blue column are the odds available to BACK each result whereas the pink column are the odds available to LAY each result.

Using publicly available stats from previous football matches, you can narrow down your selections and in theory, increase your hit rate and profit! This is just one of an infinite number of ways to trade sports.

How much can I earn Sports Trading?

The sky is the limit. Technically speaking, you might struggle to make billions from it but there sure are a few millionaire sports traders out there. Most new sports traders will lose money in their first few months but so long as you are sensible with your staking and bankroll management, you shouldn’t go bust. A lot of profitable traders will look to make a % of their trading bank each month. For example, if you start with a £1000 account, you might look to make 15% of that each month which would be £150 each month. Of course, this is extremely dependent on your abilities, your strategies and your comfort level when it comes to risk/reward ratios.

Here’s a balance sheet for some trades a year or two ago. Notice I wasn’t doing too well at Horse Racing!

Is Sports Trading gambling?

Technically yes, but not in the way you think. Just like any business, you are risking your time & money to try to make some profit. Sports trading is no different. Professional traders use strict staking plans that dictate how much they can bet each time. This is usually a percentage of their bank (aka trading float, account balance etc). Using a percentage method, losing runs are minimised as the bet sizes are reduced in order to prevent a blowout.

Most casual gamblers gamblers bet without staking plans and usually pick their selections with little or no long-term strategy. Successful ports traders treat their work like a business and can spend months (even years!) analysing a scenario before they put any of their own money on it.

How can I start sports trading?

You’ll want to open a Betfair Exchange account. A betting exchange looks similar to a bookmaker but you can place Back and Lay bets. The other crucial difference is that the odds are decided by the market as opposed to a bookmaker or any other individual. In essence, you can ask for whatever odds you like and so long as some other person accepts your bet, you’re on! Betfair take a 5% commission from all winning bets but as a beginner, you shouldn’t worry about this too much. 99% of the time, you will get far better odds at a betting exchange like Betfair Exchange than a traditional bookmaker, even with the 5% commission taken off.

Psst! I forged this balance to get your attention: You don’t need thousands of pounds to get started. £100-200 should be fine, or you can even paper trade for free!

Sometime last year I wrote an eBook about sports betting for profit, you can get yourself a free copy here. I’d really recommend watching some of Bet Angel’s YouTube videos too. Bet Angel is software that you can use to access the exchange that you might find helpful later on. The chap who created it (Peter Webb) has hundreds of videos explaining all different aspects of sports trading, all for free. There is a lot of garbage out there so be careful, you don’t need to buy into any magical system to get started!

You can also find my latest post about how to start trading on Betfair Exchange here.

3. Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is where companies pay commission for promoting their product. The commission structure and methods of promotion vary massively depending on the industry. A common example is the the Amazon affiliate program called Amazon Associates. If you refer somebody to a product on Amazon and they buy it, you get between 1-10% of the sale. My blog post about Sports Trading Books actually has some Amazon Associates links. It goes without saying, turn AdBlock off or you won’t see the Amazon links!

ClickBank is an affiliate network where you can browse for products to promote in their marketplace.

How to get started Affiliate Marketing?

Before you get excited and buy another set of business cards (I’m a sucker for this!), write down your interests and things you know a lot about. On the same page, write down ways you can promote these ideas/encourage sales in these industries. I often find Mind Maps are very helpful for these kinds of things so I’ve made an example below using MindMup 2.0.

That only took 5 minutes and now we’ve got 3 different industries with lots of different promotional ideas! Remember, you don’t have to spend tonnes of money to promote products and you don’t have to stick to online methods. Now, you just need to find some products to sell! Is there something you use regularly that you would be happy to promote? Great!

If you want to promote something, usually Googling “[INSERT PRODUCT NAME HERE] affiliates” will direct you to the companies affiliate program. Betfair have their own affiliate program, if you’re interested!

How much can I earn with Affiliate Marketing?

It’s impossible to put a figure on this. From experience, most people give up fairly quickly after a month or two of running terrible paid advertisements and not getting any sales. The people who stick it out are usually the ones who bring home the bacon. I know a few full-time affiliates and they earn a very comfortable living. They promote a huge range of things including Amazon products, Car Mechanics, Computer Software and even adult sites. It’s possible to earn £xx,xxx a day but that is usually after years of trial/error and A LOT of marketing campaigns that have bombed and taken a few credit card balances with them. Set yourself a reasonable targets to begin with and take your time learning about the industry.

4. Dropshipping

What is it Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is where you create your own product and leave it with another company until somebody buys it. When your product is purchased, the company holding your stock will ship it for you whilst you sleep! There are a variety of dropshipping arrangements but some companies will design, create and ship your product so long as you give them some cash and a few instructions.

Let Amazon deal with all that posting & packing nonsense so you don’t have to!

What kind of products can I dropship?

Absolutely (almost) everything! You will be surprised at how many high-street products are actually just generic products that can be bought and packaged by people just like you and me. The only thing that differentiates most high street products, is the brand. Holland & Barrett is full of great examples. You can bet that at least 50% of their stock started off as some generic and repackaged product that a loser like me bought using money from their overdraft.

How much does it cost to start dropshipping?

It varies depending on the product you want to sell and the companies you are working with. If you are looking to sell t-shirts for example, there might be a £500 minimum order and a small monthly fee for holding your product and shipping it. I’ve not used them but I have heard of a t-shirt company that doesn’t ask for any money upfront. If I remember rightly, you design a t-shirt and if you one, they will print/send it on demand and give you a cut of the profits! You also need to factor in costs such as:

• Web Design/Hosting
• Marketing (pay per click etc)
• Dropshipping fees
• Product label/sticker design
• Tax (Sounds obvious, but coming from a betting background, it might not be!)

Hey! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the guide so far. I’ll be adding to it and writing spin-off articles to expand on each point constantly. If you have any suggestions or requests, please get in touch. If you want to get free updates and tips for sports trading/affiliate marketing or any of the above, drop your email below and I’ll send out useful info when I come across it!

Cheers,

Laurence