Realistic Steps to Make Your First Dollar Online
4 Essential Steps to Overcome Online Business Challenges and Earn Your First Dollar
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Isn't it? The reason we start an online business is to make money. And, of course, we want to earn our first dollar as fast as possible.
But is this realistic?
What about all the guys sitting in Ferraris, telling you to make thousands of dollars within a month?
If you're a little like me, you're more realistic about how fast you can make money.
In my early stages as a blogger, I followed successful bloggers. But I was also aware that they started earlier than me and that they were once beginners too.
Instead of feeling jealous of their success, I reminded myself that I could achieve this too. I believed that I could become successful and make a living from my online business.
Starting an online business can be daunting, especially with the many challenges that come with making money online.
Here’s a step-by-step plan to help you navigate through these challenges and set yourself up for success.
Why Your First Dollar?
The reason I talk about making your first dollar is the following: Getting from zero to one, meaning from $0 to $1, is the most difficult.
Always.
Every move from zero to one is the hardest because we have no experience.
With every step forward, we use the momentum to grow faster.
Earning your first dollar will feel incredible, like reaching the peak of Mount Everest. You will always remember that moment.
Other Challenges to Making Money Online
Before diving into the steps, it's essential to recognize some common challenges:
Finding the right niche, your WHO
Building an audience from scratch
Choosing the right tools and technology
Keeping motivated through the initial slow growth
Let’s break down how to tackle these challenges effectively.
Step 1: Listen to Your Audience to Understand Their Common Problems.
Easily, I could say, “understand the market.” But who is your market, and what are their problems?
Everyone has a problem, and most people are willing to pay to solve their most painful ones because they want a quick solution, whether it's losing weight, becoming debt-free, earning money, and so on.
The first step you can take is to talk to people and understand their common issues. By engaging with your target audience, you can identify their pain points.
Knowing your skills in that certain niche, you can then create a simple solution to help them.
My Tip: Start conversations on platforms like Reddit or Facebook groups related to your niche. Ask open-ended questions to get detailed responses. Also, use surveys when someone signs up for your email list.
What I always did was ask my subscribers about their biggest problem in my niche in the welcome email they received after signing up for my email list.
The more people you ask, the clearer you'll understand their problems and what simple but unique product you can offer to overcome their problem.
Step 2: Build Your Community Around Solving That Problem.
Once you understand your audience's biggest problems and have a solution to help them, you need to show that you are the problem solver.
In other words, focus on growing a small audience by demonstrating how you can help them solve their problem.
Start by sharing valuable content that addresses their issues and provides solutions. Your content should showcase your expertise in your specific niche.
To your audience, you need to become the go-to resource for their problem.
Use your blog, social media, Substack, newsletters, and forums to engage with your audience.
My Tip: Consistency is key for growing an online business. Regularly post helpful content and engage with your audience through comments and messages. If you have found a schedule that allows you to consistently publish content, stick with it. Your audience will get used to and anticipate every new post or newsletter you share.
You can pick two or three platforms where you think your audience spends time and publish your content there.
You don’t need to be active on all platforms, especially as a beginner.
Step 3: Start Building a Small Email List of Raving Fans.
In short, you need to build a small email list of people who are interested in what you have to offer.
Email marketing is key. An email list is one of the most powerful tools for building a loyal audience.
You should start building your list from the very beginning. Don’t skip this step.
After starting my first blog, I began building an email list very soon. It was slow at first, and initially, I was writing a newsletter just for myself because I had no subscribers.
But I committed to publishing consistently, and about six months later, I had my first 1,000 subscribers.
Offer a free resource, like an e-book or a checklist, in exchange for email subscriptions. This will help you stay connected with your audience and keep them informed about your offerings.
My Tip: Use email marketing platforms like Kit to build and manage your email list and send regular updates and newsletters.
Kit offers a free pricing plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, allowing you to create unlimited landing pages for your freebies, send unlimited email broadcasts, and even sell digital products.
We’ll discuss that in the next step.
When people sign up through your landing page, your lead magnet will be delivered to them.
Make sure your free offer is related to the product you want to offer (your WHAT). This ensures you attract the right audience.
Step 4: Choose the Right Tools–Easy, Cheap, Familiar.
For both building your email list and selling your offer, I suggest using the easiest, cheapest, and most familiar tools.
Once you have a few hundred subscribers, you can start selling the solution to your audience’s problem by emailing them.
Kit simplifies selling by allowing you to set up products directly in your portal and easily link them in your emails.
Another option for selling digital products is SendOwl, which I used before Kit offered product features. With SendOwl, you can create products and link to them from any platform. Through its integration with Kit, you can also send emails to buyers and collect their addresses.
Avoid overcomplicating your setup with expensive or complex tools in the early stages.
My Tip: Leverage free resources and tutorials available online to learn how to use these tools effectively.
To Conclude
Making money online does come with its challenges, but with the right approach, you can overcome them.
Here’s a summary of the four steps to make your first dollar online:
Understand your audience’s problems
Grow a community around solving those problems
Build a small email list
Use a simple tech stack
And don’t forget: consistency and perseverance are key.
Follow these steps, and you'll be on your way to online success.
Feel free to comment or email me with any questions you have, or to share your biggest challenge when it comes to starting your online business and earning money.
All of this sounds very familiar! Thanks for the ConvertKit recommendation—I’ll make sure to look into it :)
Enjoyed this one. I did not know about convertkit and sendowl.platform before. I will definately check them out.