We all have to start at the beginning. As I write these words I can remember where I started, spending everyday (practically all day) online trying to find a solid answer to one question, “How do I make a decent $50,000 plus living online?” I tried selling products on eBay and reselling products on Amazon. I tried taking surveys and signing up to affiliate websites like LinkShare and Commission Junction. I even tried looking for ‘work from home on your computer’ opportunities. Eventually I decided to do the same thing I did when I was a kid, take a few of my hand-made creations to the public and start selling.
In my experience, making a “real” and “decent” income online begins with steering clear of all the hype and focusing on creating an offer people (including you) can’t refuse. The first mistake many make is attempting to sell something they have no clue about and honestly wouldn’t buy themselves. If your sole reason for selling something is that somebody told you it was an “easy sell” I recommend you focus on finding a real offer: a product, service, or combination of the two that is of interest to you and of value to a specific audience. You can sell just about anything online so long as there is somebody who wants to buy it. That being said, the first thing you need to do is figure out what your offer is.
I’ve told my start up story many times over. My first online income streams were service based: web design projects, graphic gigs, and consultation opportunities. Money was made, but of course every freelance entrepreneur knows there is a big difference between making some money from a side hustle and making steady income from a lucrative business. While it takes some time, you have to learn how to stop thinking like a worker and train yourself to act like the boss.
Most 9-to-5 employees work paycheck to paycheck and most newbie entrepreneurs work gig-to-gig. With a worker mentality, newbie entrepreneurs sometimes take whatever they can get in the interest of making a sale. As soon as I realized generating a couple hundred dollars from a few sales per month was not enough, I had my first mind shift. Instead of thinking about how much you want to make per sale, focus on how much you want to make per month (ideally per year).
Setting bigger financial goals is an integral part of generating more money. With that one change I was able to better assess the kinds of products I should push, the prices I needed to charge and the people that I needed to focus on. Just about anybody can turn tens into thousands with a clearer understanding of how much money they want to make and what they plan on offering to the public to reach that financial goal.
Defining your offer and setting your monthly financial goal is a good place to start. If you eager to generate a decent living from your current online business I would like to learn more about what you do and share my income building solutions with you at She Rocks the Web, my 3 day weekend workshop for women entrepreneurs.
