Are cheap mortgages coming to an end? Where it comes to personal finance, and especially mortgages, if Martin Lewis issues a warning, it’s always worth paying attention. And this time, Martin’s message is very clear: the historic low interest rates that many homeowners have enjoyed may soon be a thing of the past.

Choosing or switching to the right mortgage is one of the most important pieces of property advice for any homeowner, but changes may be afoot that are beyond homeowners’ control. Here’s why.

Image credit: Chris Snook Photography

Why cheap mortgages may be about to end

Writing on the MoneySavingExpert website, Martin draws homeowners’ attention to a recent comment by Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England . Bailey said that the rising inflation means that the Bank ‘will have to act’. This, Martin warns, is a very clear indication from the Governor that base interest rates are about to start rising – and with them, mortgage interest rates.

Although Martin acknowledges that the number of available mortgage deals with interest rates under one per cent have increased since the lifting of Covid-related restrictions, the summer levels of such deals may have been ‘as good as it got.’ What levels of increases can homeowners expect? Martin says that ‘the market’s strongly predicting (it’s not always right) rates will rise from today’s 0.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent next month, then to 0.5 per cent by February and 0.75 per cent later next year.’ If these base interest rate increases come to pass, an increase in mortgage rates will be inevitable. Moreover, Martin think that mortgage rate will go up ‘steeply and swiftly’ as soon as base interest rates start climbing.

Image credit: Polly Eltes

What can homeowners do to prepare for the interest rate rise? Martin’s advice is simple and clear: ‘EVERYONE with a mortgage should check now if your existing deal is as good as it can get – and that applies double if you’re languishing on your lender’s standard variable rate.’ A standard variable rate is never a good idea in uncertain times, and while some homeowners will have benefited from years of declining base interest rates, they need to urgently reconsider and see if they can lock in a good fixed-term deal to avoid any nasty surprises.

The post Martin Lewis warns homeowners that cheap mortgages may be coming to an end appeared first on Ideal Home.

As an interior designer, you dedicate a lot of time to client projects, which can leave little time to work on attracting new clients or gaining additional income. 

One way of getting around this is to look at creating a passive income stream – and with your knowledge of interior design, digital products are the way to go.

Whether you want to free up time to focus on your clients, or you want to work less and earn more (let’s be honest, who doesn’t?), creating digital products that educate and/or inspire can help you do so.

In essence, digital products allow you to:

• Earn a passive income 
• Work less and earn more
• Help others without eating into your free time

In this article, I’m going to cover:

• What are digital products?
• The benefits of digital products
• Digital product ideas for interior designers
• How to create and sell your digital product

What are digital products?

But simply, a digital product is any kind of product that is sold online and accessed digitally (as opposed to physically), be it a downloadable e-book or online course. 

Most digital products solve a problem or focus on teaching a new skill. They also offer a revenue stream that can be applied to literally any niche. Are there questions you get asked on a regular basis by your clients? Do family and friends come to you for advice on a certain topic? Do other interior designers often want to “pick your brains”? 

If so, you’ve got questions that need answering, the knowledge to do so and an audience that wants to hear your advice.

All you need to do now is decide which digital product avenue to go down. 

Benefits of digital products for interior designers

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of creating digital products (alongside the additional income, of course):

1. Less admin than physical products 

While digital products do take a little time to put together initially, they don’t require as much ongoing effort as physical products – there’s no packing and posting orders involved and minimal admin!

2. They don’t go out of stock

When you upload a digital product to your website, it’ll stay there forever (unless it’s a limited edition product, of course). It won’t go out of stock, which means you won’t let customers down or miss out on sales while waiting for new stock to arrive (or for you to create it).

3. They can be used indefinitely

Once a customer hits the download button on a digital product, they can refer back to it indefinitely. Of course, information might change or become less relevant over time, or you may learn more about a subject that you wish to include, but the great thing about digital products is that you can easily update them and upload newer versions to keep them relevant to your audience.

4. They’re cheap to create

If you’re happy to try your hand at anything and possess some creative skills, most digital products can be created single-handedly. Say you want to create an e-book – even if you don’t have the skillset, there are plenty of online resources, such as Canva, that can help beautify your idea. Putting together a digital product from scratch can take time though (which as a busy interior designer you may not have), so hiring someone to help may be the best option for you.

5. Access to a large online audience

When selling products online you have access to a wider audience, but when those products are physical items, you may come up against shipping issues meaning you can’t actually get your products to everyone that wants them. However, with digital products, anyone who lands on your page can download your product with a click of a button. You may even find you gain new clients this way, too!

Tip: Make sure your website SEO is up to scratch so your target audience can find your product!

Digital product ideas for interior designers

There’s a whole host of digital product ideas for interior designers – these include resources for clients, the general public and other interior designers. Here are some of the most popular avenues to go down:

E-books

There are various aspects of your interior design knowledge that you can draw upon to create an e-book. Perhaps you’ve got lots of experience with different interior design styles or designing restoration projects. Whatever it is, if it’s something people ask you for help on, or something people are searching for online (do your keyword research), you can create a downloadable e-book on the subject.

Ideas:

• How-to guides
• Ideas and inspirations guides
• Tips and tricks guides
• FAQs with links to products

Online course 

If you’ve got a lot to say on a certain topic that needs more than an e-book or tutorial, why not create an online course? Perhaps you have a particular area of expertise that’s highly sought after from clients (or other interior designers). While you may want to help everyone, it’s impossible to respond to every request while working on your paying clients’ projects, so creating a detailed course that you can direct people to is a great option. The course could include a variety of content from videos and audio recordings to worksheets and printables.

Ideas:

• Videos
• Audio
• Worksheets
• Printable resources
• Email course (series of emails) with links and downloads

Online tutorials

If you don’t have the time or resources to put together an entire course, you could create some shorter tutorials on certain topics for your audience. Perhaps you’re often asked for tips on accessorising rooms or how to choose the right lighting. You can create tutorials in a variety of formats, with video and audio being the most popular. 

Tip: If you’re linking to a pre-recorded YouTube video, you could include affiliate links (more information below) in the description box to earn extra commission.

Ideas:

• Pre-recorded video tutorials
• Live video tutorials
• Audio/podcast-style tutorials

Mood boards

As an interior designer, you’re passionate about curating spaces that work well together. But there are only so many hours in a day and so many clients you can help. So, by putting together a selection of mood boards for different colour schemes, interior design styles or seasons, you can offer your eye for design from a distance. You can also include a shopping list and shoppable affiliate links to go with your mood boards – though keep in mind things may go out of stock or become discontinued, so you’ll have to update the list occasionally.

Ideas:

• Colour scheme mood boards
• Interior design style mood boards
• Seasonal mood boards
• Furnishings mood boards

Resources and templates for other designers

If you’re experienced in your field, the chances are you’ve got answers that other interior designers are looking for. Perhaps you’ve found a method of attracting or retaining clients that works for you and that you think other designers could benefit from. Or, perhaps you’re always asked for advice on certain topics from your peers – use your experience and knowledge to put some resources or templates together for those that are starting out. This could include things like a new client questionnaire, welcome packet or project proposal template.

Ideas:

• Contracts
• Tips on pricing
• Blog post ideas
• New client questionnaire
• Welcome brochure
• Project proposal template
• List of resources

A membership site

With membership websites, your audience – or ‘members’ – pay a fee to receive a certain amount of content each month. This is a lot more work than other digital products because it requires you to create new material on a regular basis. But if you have a good amount of members, it could prove to be pretty lucrative. As an interior designer, your membership site could include resources similar to the e-books and packages mentioned above, courses, podcasts etc. Basically, anything that’s going to help your audience and keep them coming back for more! 

Ideas:

• Exclusive members-only content
• Audio or video tutorials
• Short courses
• Resources
• Templates
• Printables

Affiliate marketing

While not a digital product as such, if you have a blog with a large amount of monthly traffic, or a sizable social media audience, you could go down the affiliate marketing route. When you sign up to affiliate platforms – be it for your favourite brands, or larger retailers like Amazon – you’re able to generate ‘affiliate links’ that when shopped through provide you with a small commission (usually around  5-10% of the product amount). While not always a lucrative income stream, if you add links to top performing content and regularly share affiliate links on social media, you can gain a decent passive income.

Tip: You could also include affiliate links in your other digital products. For example, if you created a guide to different paint types, you could include links to some of your favourites.

Ideas:

• Add to blog posts
• Add to moodboard shopping lists
• Add to social media 
• Create an Amazon storefront

Website ads

In a similar fashion to affiliate links, if you have a high-performing website, you could use an online ad platform, such as Google Adsense, to place ads on your webpages. The amount of traffic your website gets each month and the amount of ads you place will determine how much you earn – but avoid oversaturating your site with ads as this can put visitors off.

How to create and sell your digital products

So, you want to create a successful digital product, but don’t know where to start. Keep these three steps in mind:

1. Think of an idea

Is there a subject you’re passionate about, a frequently asked question that crops up or something people come to you for help on? Whatever the topic, it could be your golden ticket to a successful digital product!

2. Create the idea

Once you’ve got your idea, it’s time to create your product. If you want to create the product alone, there are tons of resources online that can help. But sometimes it’s worth investing in the skills of a professional in that area. This will free up your time for clients, too.

If you do decide to tackle the project alone, these resources may help:

• Canva for PDF and moodboard design
• Shopify and Teachable for online courses
• WordPress for membership sites (with plugins like Memberpress)
• Etsy and Shopify for selling digital templates

3. Promote the product

If people aren’t aware of your product, they won’t be able to purchase it. So, after creating your idea, you need to market it.

• Share it with your social media audience
• Create blog content about the product
• Do your keyword research and optimise your product page for search engines (SEO)

For each of these steps, make sure to communicate the benefits of the product, who it will help and how it will help them.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to digital products – as long as you’ve got a problem to solve and the knowledge to solve it, there will be customers who will buy your solution. Now it’s time to go out and create it!

Ready to get into the festive spirit? You could get your hands on a free pair of weekday tickets to The Ideal Home Show Christmas.

From the 24th to 28th November the Ideal Home Show Christmas is back at Olympia London and brings you everything you need to prepare your home for the festive season. You’ll walk your way through the magic of Christmas, discovering a range of imaginative and awe-inspiring Christmas ideas to get your home ready for the festive season.

Image credit: Ideal Home Show

At the show you can shop hundreds of brands across four Christmas themed show sections: Gifts, Pet, Home and Decorations. Get ready to pick up stockings full of seasonal ideas on everything from decorations to hand‐crafted gifts, Christmas puddings and festive fizz, to furniture and New Year Home Improvements.

The Ideal Home Show Christmas isn’t just for shopping. There will be live entertainment, celebrity chef’s, expert demos and thousands of gift, home and food ideas to set you up for the festive period.

Image credit: Ideal Home Show

The festive roomsets will also offer plenty of inspiration for Christmas living room decorating ideas. Whether you love a traditional festive scheme that includes berry reds and gorgeous greens or prefer something a little more contemporary such as cool white with lots of faux fur and sheepskin throws.

From dazzling red, gold and green decorations to modern snow-white ornaments, you’ll find a host of fun, festive ornaments and trinkets to decorate your home with this Christmas.

Image credit: Ideal Home Show

Classes will also be on offer at the Christmas Theatre sessions, to brush up on your decor skills. From sprucing up the front door with a fresh wreath, a masterclass on how to create your own Christmas decorations.

The free ticket offer is only available until the 7th of November and must be redeemed in pairs.

Offer details

Get your hands on the free pair of weekday tickets when you quote IHSXIHFREE or go to the Ideal Home Show Christmas website.

You can also snap up a £10 discount on weekend tickets when you quote – IHSXIHTIX or visit this link.

*Offer ends 7/11/2021. FOC tickets must be redeemed in pairs. WEEKDAYS only. Standard on the door price £20 weekday/£22 weekend. Concessions are not included. Kids aged 0-15 years old go free on weekdays when accompanied by a paying adult (maximum 2 kids per adult). Kids 7-15 years old pay on weekends (standard rate £9.50) Kids aged 6 and under go free on weekends when accompanied by a paying adult (maximum 2 kids per adult). Tickets will be on a first-come-first-serve basis and will be print at home or show on phone tickets only. A maximum of 2 free adult tickets per household. Entry valid for the Show and Day requested between 24th November and 26th November 2021. Tickets will be sent via email between 1-5 days after application. Tickets are non-transferable, non-assignable and there are no cash alternatives. All tickets will be scanned upon entry. Multiple applications will be refused entry onsite.

The post Snap up a free pair of tickets to the Ideal Home Show at Christmas appeared first on Ideal Home.

Red wine and rugs is a recipe for disaster, or so we thought until we discovered Ruggable a machine washable rug.

Already a hit in the US, the brand has recently launched in the UK, offering the best rugs for households that are prone to a little bit of mess. Whether you have messy pets and children or are concerned about spills, this rug promises to be the ideal stylish solution.

Not only does the Ruggable rug promise to be stain-resistant, but if you do make a mess it can simply be thrown in the washing machine to get it looking good as new.

Image credit: Ruggable

The rug designed by entrepreneur Jeneva Bell uses a unique two-piece washable rug system. The rug comes in two parts: a non-slip rug pad, and a patterned rug cover. It is the top part that looks like a traditional rug, and can be easily taken up and popped in the washing machine when it gets dirty.

‘Years ago, I invested in a large area rug and within days my puppy Bambi had marked her territory! After sharing my frustration with family and friends, I realized we all had the same issue of keeping our rugs fresh and clean – some had even resorted to bare floors,’ explains Jeneva. ‘With a Ruggable Rug, you don’t have to go without the comfort & style a rug brings to a space.’

Image credit: Ruggable

‘Imagine how great it would be for everyone to be able to wash all of their rugs, including larger area rugs, in a home washer and dryer at their own convenience.’

We must admit when we first heard about the new brand we were a little sceptical about its claims. A rug that could stand up to red wine and coffee spills seemed too good to be true.

Rugs have increasingly become a popular kitchen flooring idea, so one that could stand up to stains was music to our ears. So we decided to put it to the test.

Opting for the white Nalia rug to truly test the claims, we put the rug through its paces. The rug was treated to a splash of red wine, smattering of coffee granules and the general fall out of being situated next to the cooker and dishwasher.

After a few days in the kitchen, it was time to pop the rug in the washing machine on a cold wash as instructed. When lifted up the rug cover is very similar to a blanket so fit easily into the washing machine. It also meant when it came out it dried really quickly on a drying rack.

Image credit: Ruggable

But what was truly amazing was how it dried without a single crease, once the rug was placed back on the non-slip backing it looked as good as new. Safe to say we’ve convinced.

The rugs start at £89 for a small rug and go up to £349 for a 245cm round rug. Whether you are looking for a runner rug in the hallway or a square rug to add to your living room ideas, Ruggable has a huge range. There is even a range designed by famed designer Jonathan Adler.

Recently, the brand has also introduced plush rugs, so you can indulge in the Berber rug trend without tiptoeing around it in socks.

Drink your wine in peace without any spill panics again.

The post The stylish washable rug you will want to try spilling red wine on appeared first on Ideal Home.