We all need money to pay our bills. And now the time has come to talk about how you can earn that money online.
Give, and you will receive - Luke 6:38.
No, I’m not a fan of the bible. Nevertheless, in Internet business this principle is as true as it can be.
You have to use your platform to give information to your audience. Information that will help your readers to answer questions, solve problems or relieve pains.
Then you’ll receive their money as a „Thank You“.
You need to focus on the term „value“. It’s overused nowadays, so let me explain.
You’ll only receive money when your information is valuable to your audience. Solve problems, answer questions and deliver what your audience is searching for. Be actionable in your advice and use terms your audience relates to.
Then you’ll automatically position yourself as the go-to person in your field. You’ll become known and trusted for being an expert.
Don’t forget that others don’t have your knowledge. What comes natural to you is hard for others. And that’s the reason why you can charge for your skills and expertise.
You need to showcase your knowledge and experience by using your platform. Prove your skills by solving real world problems, answering real world questions and by delivering solutions, that enrich the lives of your target audience.
The trick is, not to give all your knowledge away for free. When you’re creating content and delivering valuable information, you’re doing your audience a favor.
Once the audience understands that you know your stuff, they’ll be willing to pay you for your service, product or whatever.
They'll pay you for information that goes even more into depth and is more valuable than the free information you’re sharing.
Keep some important information secret that you can sell.
But before we start talking about selling, let’s have a look at how you can give information to your audience.
Blogging is probably the most common way to publish information. You should have set up your platform by now or at least be working on it. Once your WordPress is installed, you can start to blog.
The written word is easy to consume, if you structure your text and don’t just write one huge paragraph. Your readers can skim through the text and search for the information that’s most valuable to them.
Blogs are the standard tool for online businesses and entrepreneurs and I consider a blog as mandatory to build your personal brand.
Your blog will be the foundation in your business where you publish information and sell your products or services. This is where you build your brand.
Recording videos and sharing them on your blog, Youtube, Vimeo or Vine is more personal than blogging.
By hearing and seeing you, people can connect to you as a person easier and you start building a deeper relationship with your target audience.
Video is great if you are sharing very emotional information, talk about complex things that can be better explained visually or just feel more comfortable on video than blogging.
No, it’s not too late to start a podcast. Even though there are countless podcasts, you can add your own voice to it (literally).
Podcasts allow your audience to listen to your content whenever they want, e.g. while driving in the car or doing sports.
Your audience can consume your content when reading or watching video isn’t an option, which gives you more reach to new situations.
Also podcasts build a very intimate connection to your audience, because you can talk to them directly (just like video).
We’re seeing lots of podcasts that are build upon interviewing other well-known persons. You can do that too! Connect to the influencers in your field and record a short Skype chat with them, that’s it!
You need to provide highly valuable information in order to gain the trust of your audience. Choose the form that feels most natural to you and start with it. You can always expand later on.
Let me show you some examples that work for me and my business:
Other methods you can use to give information and to build your brand:
Now that we’ve spoken a lot on why you need to give information, how to give and what, it’s time to talk about how to receive value.
The online business I believe in is built upon a simple yet powerful principle:
Share free information to allow your audience to trust you. Then sell relevant and useful products or service to those who will benefit from the offer.
Unfortunately there are many scams online that trick people. I want you to build an honest business!
Let me briefly explain ways that you can earn money online with.
This is probably the classic way in online business. You promote existing products to your audience and get a commission on purchases made.
It’s easy to begin with, because you don’t need to create a product yourself.
Theoretically you can earn money right away with affiliate marketing, but let me tell you that it normally takes some time to generate income.
First you need to build up trust to your audience, otherwise they won’t buy the products you promote. That’s where giving value comes into play.
I’m doing affiliate marketing whenever it’s appropriate. I always make sure that people will benefit from the product or service I’m sharing and that I offer free alternatives when I believe in those alternatives.
Information products are products that you create and sell yourself, e.g. video courses, eBooks or any other paid content.
You package your knowledge into a format that’s a good fit and then sell it to your audience.
This can be writing an eBook (because you’re a good writer), recording a video training (because you’re comfortable on camera) or doing webinars (because you love to interact with people).
This business model brings you the most independence and I think it has the biggest potential to grow your business.
But it’s also very complex and involves a lot of learning. My friend Henri Juntilla has written a 12-step blueprint for creating information products which you can open here.
It would be too much to explain the process here in detail, but if you’re interested in building your own information product, you hire me as a coach.
Coaching is a very efficient business model, since you can sell your skills directly to clients.
You’re positioning yourself as expert in your field and then you’re launching a coaching program that people can buy.
With the type of content you are publishing you can easily control whether you’re seen as a good coach or not. Again, here’s the giving important to receive.
When you go through my content, you can see that I’m always trying to educate you with the things I’m talking about. I’m not doing this because I think that I’m better than you. I’m sharing my experiences and expertise and I hope that you can benefit from my content.
Coaching isn’t very scalable, especially one-on-one coaching can be time consuming. However, if you’re starting out, coaching is a good way to make a decent amount of money pretty quickly.
Freelancing is the last big player in online business models. You’re doing project based work with clients that trust your skills.
This is definitely interesting for any kind of developers, writers, designers and mostly all tech-related jobs. But you can also freelance being an interior decorator, personal assistant or translator.
If you have a skill that can be used in project based work, you’re predestined to be a freelancer.
And your online business is a great way to get projects and paying customers!
Of course those were only brief explanations. Here’s a post you can read to learn more about profitable online business systems.
This is the end of my Restart 101 training program and I hope that you’ve gotten an idea on how to build your online business.
Building an online business is pretty complex and I talked about the most basic aspects, the foundation you need to have.
Now it’s time to take action on the things you’ve learned!
The best way to gather new skills is to try new things, so don’t be afraid to fail at the first try. Being an entrepreneur leads to failing over and over again, because learning from mistakes differentiates the successful businesses from the failing business.
I’d love to hear in what stage your business currently is! Are you aware of your skills? Is your platform already up and running? Please share it in the comments below.
Also, if you want to take your business to the next level, you can work with me directly. In one-on-one coaching we’ll grow a business that pays all your bills and will earn you the costs for coaching multiple times.
