Experts reveal the REAL way to make money online, and you might not like it
Here at Borderless we talk about breaking down the borders, whether psychological or physical, that are holding you back from where you want to be. If I had to explain it another way I would say that it is our mission to bring more FREEDOM to the lives of our listeners and readers.
Although it seems to be obvious, many people have trouble dealing with the fact that making money is one of the essential things that you MUST do to have any kind of freedom in your life.
If you are broke you are not free to do the things that you want and need to do.
Getting a job is what most people do to pay the bills, but answering to a boss everyday is certainly NOT the level of freedom that most people want to stay at for their entire lives.
Working for yourself is the next level of financial freedom that people want. Working at something that you own and hopefully also enjoy is becoming more accessible everyday.
The ability to make money online by having location independent income is also becoming more accessible. Being able to live and work from anywhere in the world gives you an even higher level of freedom that has not been attainable in the past. By making money online you can live where you actually want to live and where your money can go much further.
Online income is a mysterious thing to most people who think that it must be some kind of fairy tale. I am here to tell you that it is not and it is probably easier than you think. In fact, we have interviewed many people on the Borderless Podcast that are doing exactly that and have their own successful online businesses.
Since this is one of the top things that people ask us about I thought that I would pose this question to some of our past guests and have actually achieved this level of freedom to see where they thought the best opportunities were for people that are starting out today.
Here is the exact question that I asked:
What do you think is the best way for someone to get started making money online right now?
As you’ll see there is no “get rich quick” talk here. It’s all about putting in the work and THEN reaping the rewards.
Justin Cooke
One of the best ways to create income online right away is to deliver a service. You can buy a domain name, setup hosting, and create yourself a WordPress based website with a Paypal button within one day. (Check out GoDaddy for domains/hosting, ThemeForest for WordPress themes, and get yourself paid by setting up a Paypal account and getting yourself some buttons to put up on the site)
Once you’ve done that, you can reach out to others in your network explaining your new offer, asking them to help you get the word out or become customers themselves. You can do this through social media, email, or any forums or communities where you’re currently a member.
If you’re solving a big enough problem and delivering a no-brainer service, this is an awfully fast way to get started.
Note: If you’re “new” to delivering this service it might make sense to reach out to those in your network who are connectors with the right audience for you. Offer to do the work at a discount (or for free), so long as they honestly share their experiences with you with their audience.
Justin Cooke is a Partner at Empire Flippers and co-host of The Empire Flippers Podcast.
Listen to our podcast with Justin here.
Pete Sisco
Well, the best way is to decide to actually take action. That’s the sticking point for most people. They spend years (literally!) saying to themselves, “I want to operate an online business, but I don’t know what to do or where to start.” It gets left like that, year after year. So making the decision to start the process and talk to an expert is the wall that must come down.
As a person who has made his entire income online for over 15 years now, my approach to getting people started is very different. I’ve seen the “hot new thing” change so many times — remember when MySpace and link building were supposed to be the gateway to fortunes? If a person wants true freedom and to sleep well at night he or she needs to have a durable business that can make money decade after decade.
And the reality is, in a trillion-dollar online economy there are so many ways to make a solid, reliable income that a smart person might as well choose to build something that will be exciting and interesting to them year after year. Something that gives them a deeper satisfaction than mere money can deliver. Personally, I can’t think of a better situation than having all the money you need, living wherever you want, and doing work that makes you happy and adds meaning to your life. Oh, and having it all completely under your control, not the control of a boss or committee of bosses.
So what’s my honest answer? Get started before you are in desperate straits and are forced to pick something that’s hot right now, and is already crowded with droves of other desperate people scrambling to get some money generated for next month’s rent. That way you can build a business that is something YOU want, instead of what’s hot today.
Maybe the greatest feature of online business is that they are inexpensive to build and can be done in spare time while we earn money from conventional, rat race jobs. After they are generating consistent reliable income, we can step away from work we don’t enjoy and into a business that was deliberately engineered to be exactly what we want to be doing with our lives. That’s the ultimate “best way to make money online” and it always will be, irrespective of what’s ‘hot’ right now.
Pete Sisco is an author and successful online marketer. He helps people escape the rate race at Resilient Personal Freedom.
Listen to our podcasts with Pete here, here and here.
Johnny FD
The best way to start making money online right now is to utilize a skill you already have; don’t spend 6 months to a year learning a new skill if you already have one you can monetize. But even quicker than that is if you already have a website, youtube channel, email list, blog, or any other form of readership, you can monetize that overnight simply by swapping out direct links to books, courses and products you’ve talked about with affiliate links that give you credit for referring customers, just make sure you do it the Earnest Affiliate way and don’t start promoting products you haven’t used or don’t believe in just to try and make a quick buck.
If you don’t already have a subscription base, blog or platform, I would look to see how others are already making money online by reading their income reports and choosing one way of making money online that you identify with and starting there.
Johnny FD is the founder of johnnyFD.com and is the host of the Travel like a Boss Podcast.
Listen to our podcast with Johnny FD here.
Amy Scott
I think the best way for someone to get started making money online is to use existing skills, or learn very specific skills, and work on getting clients to pay you for those skills. Over time you may be able to leverage that into more passive types of income, but if your focus is on generating income quickly, I think this is the place to start.
Amy Scott is the founder of Nomadtopia and the host of Nomadtopia Radio.
Listen to our podcast with Amy here.
Taylor Pearson
Productized Services – Productized service are where you deliver a scalable, repeatable service. Something like “done for you book keeping for $200/month.” They have the uncommon combination of being both highly scalable and having low startup costs.
Taylor is the author of The End of Jobs.
Listen to our podcast with Taylor here.
Andrew Henderson
The idea itself is not as important as the plan. You have to be committed not only to invest in yourself and your business, but to hold yourself accountable to a plan, which includes goals that you WRITE DOWN.
As for a business, I think a lot of business believe “online business” is a totally different animal from “business”. I know I did at one point. This is what leads people to write endless blogs, wring their wrists over website design, and do other stuff that doesn’t achieve the ultimate goal: getting customers.
The web is getting more and more niche every day, so you need to build a tribe and offer something they REALLY need.
At Nomad Capitalist, we’ve shifted from INFORMATION (of which there is plenty of) to TRANSFORMATION; I help fewer people, but only those who are committed to real change and real success. You can sell $7 e-books that people read and do nothing with, or you can offer something that makes a CHANGE. Many people don’t want a change, but your success lies in quality, not quantity.
When you realize that, you can niche down to such a small level and still find success being who you are and doing what you love… and helping people.
Andrew Henderson is the managing partner at Nomad Capitalist.
Listen to our podcast with Andrew here.
Kallen Diggs
Many people have thousands of people in their social media audience. I am always shocked that they are not monetizing such a revenue stream. There are people making $2,000 – $4,000 a month referring products to their fans as it relates to their niche. While some of them have a website, the truth is that you do not need one. That’s the great thing about brand sponsorships – getting paid to promote products or services that are relevant to your niche
Kallen Diggs is the author of Reaching The Finish Line and host of the Reaching the Finish Line Podcast.
Listen to our podcast with Kallen here.
Kevin Koskella
The most important thing in getting started with making money online is to make your first $1 in profit as quickly as possible.
Momentum is huge when it comes to online business. If you see no income for months, you are likely to get discouraged and quit.
Right now I see membership sites as the best place to start. But it’s important to think about how you can deliver value first, before you think about making sales. You must get around people you are wanting to serve, both online and in person if possible. Find out their biggest challenges. Then build your funnel.
Some questions to ask:
What free thing (lead magnet) can you create to serve this market?
What is the next step in the funnel? Course? Ebook? Monthly membership?
What are you own hurdles that you have to cross to make this happen? (for me, not being technical or a designer, it was getting past the overwhelm of building out everything).
A tool I have used to quickly build membership courses without the need for a website or plugins or a shopping cart/merchant account is 22Social. It allows you to build everything right on Facebook using a Paypal gateway. I took my last course from concept to completion in about two weeks. This solved my technology overwhelm issue and I made my first dollar quickly.
Kevin is the founder of TriSwimCoach and host of the Freedom Lovin’ Podcast.
Listen to our podcast with Kevin here.
David R. Fideler
If you possess some kind of expertise, the easiest way to get starting making money online is to sell your services and your expertise to others.
Over the course of my life, I’ve started half a dozen businesses. And service businesses are always the easiest to get started. The service business I run today, I started exactly ten years ago for $1,500. And during that ten-year-period, it has brought in $750,000 in sales. That is far more than I ever thought possible when starting out, and it allows me to live just about anywhere in the world. Even though it’s not all profit by any means, it’s certainly a far better return than than you could get in the stock market.
So with a very small initial investment, you can start a business that provides a great lifestyle for you.
The problem with other kinds of businesses, unless you have a lot of cash up front, are the huge investments that are required.
I used to run a traditional book publishing company, and it quickly reached the point where I was investing $50,000 in inventory per year. I must say, that wasn’t any fun at all. It was downright painful. And it was a big risk, too, for the actual return on the investment!
The other thing is that with the publishing business, I also had two, full-time employees. That also added a huge amount of stress.
Today, I have none of that stress, because I have virtually no overhead and work on a project basis. I have really great freelancers that work for me, but I only pay them when the jobs come in. The result is a totally stress-free business, because whenever I have the work, they are being paid and I’m also making a profit. And when the projects pause, my overhead it virtually nothing.
In the end, running a successful business online is always about increasing your knowledge and expertise. So you just need to keep learning all the time. If you’re not at the point where you feel like you possess a lot of expertise now, or enough expertise to start your own business, just freelance in an area that you’re passionate about and keep on learning every day and every week.
Keep learning and increasing your skills, and you’ll eventually reach the point where you feel ready to launch your own company.
In the end, starting a service business may not be the best way to make a vast amount of money or to get rich quick (if that even exists) — but I do think it is the best way to get started as a location independent business owner. And once you have the experience, you can start other businesses as well.
David Fideler is the founder of Brainstorm Everyday and Creative Blueprint Academy.
Listen to our podcast with David here.
Harald Baldr
I would say starting a YouTube channel. You’ll start earning instantly and growing an audience is much easier there than on a blog. Just pump out content and go for quantity over quality. Be controversial but offer value and you should start to see some income trickling through within 3 months.
Harald Baldr is the founder of haraldbaldr.com.
Listen to our podcast with Harald here.
Scott Oliver
Find a niche you and others are genuinely passionate about (preferably ‘fanatical’ and not just passionate), find out what is lacking in that market like a ‘how to’ ebook or a ‘how to’ video course, create an ‘offer’ for this product (free newsletter or ‘informational’ brochure or ten part email course) and start advertising your product to build your list, before you even start creating it. This makes sure there is a real market for what you are offering. If your advertising gives you great results then start creating it ….
Scott Oliver is the author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore and the founder of WeLoveCostaRica.com, CasaDeLujo.com and WowVideoMarketingSolutions.com
Listen to our interview with Scott Oliver here.
Karsten Aichholz
If I were to start out now, I’d look into doing niche-focused Kindle books: Immediate access to a huge market with fast feedback loops. Few technical barriers, overhead work or advance investments requirements. You can just focus on the product and start creating cash flow. Excellent if you have a short runway, limited time or are otherwise unable to rely on existing connections or exposure.
Karsten is the founder of karstenaichholz.com.
Listen to our interview with Karsten here.