How to Make your First Dollar Online

 

In July 2019, I earned my first dollar online. 

 

It was life-changing.

 

I knew that If I could make $1, then I could make $100.

 

And if I could make $100 then I could make $1,000. 

 

And if I could make $1,000 then I could make $10,000!  

 

Last week I crossed a significant milestone in my online business journey. 

 

I have now earned over $250,000 from online business. 

 

This is from a combination of:

 

Not fast by any means. 

 

I am more like the ‘tortoise’ – but I’d rather be a slow-burn than a flash in a pan.  

 

Learning how to create my own income is what allowed me to quit my engineering career when I was 29 and become ‘financially independent’. 

 

In today’s newsletter, I want to show you the steps I took to start earning an income online and how you can do the same. 

 

 

The first thing you must know is earning money online (or offline) is simply a matter of solving problems for people. 

 

That’s it. 

 

You may not realise it yet, but you already have skills, expertise and experience that can be packaged up and sold online to help people solve a problem. 

 

What are you really good at?

 

What do people come to you for help with?

 

What feels like ‘fun’ for you but looks like ‘hard work’ to others?

 

Your answers to these questions will give you insights into where you can begin your journey.

 

My journey into online business started back in June 2019 when I started learning a new skill – ‘coaching’. I invested $30,000+ to study and learn at Australasia’s #1 coaching school. 

 

It was a significant investment, but what I learned there and who I became was invaluable.

 

But you DO NOT need to invest that kind of money straight up if you want to start earning online. 

 

And you don’t need to learn ‘coaching’ like I did. 

 

Now if people are going to pay you for your expertise then you must be good at what you do. I definitely wasn’t very good at coaching when I first started, BUT there was another area I was very good at and passionate about – personal finance. 

 

Before I started learning how to coach, I had already built a 6-figure share portfolio and was very good at managing my money – these were areas that people needed help with.

 

My first business coach helped me realise that I could combine my new coaching skills with my personal finance expertise to create my own unique online business. 

 

And this is when my financial coaching service was born.   

 

 

One thing I learned early in my coaching journey was:

 

‘You can be the best in the world at what you do, but if no one knows about you then you will never make any money’. 

 

The same is true for whatever you do.

 

This is why you must learn MARKETING if you want to make money online.  

 

Thankfully we all have access to a powerful and FREE tool to help us market our online business – social media. 

 

Before I started my journey into online business I was a ‘consumer’ of social media. 

 

But now I’ve become a ‘creator’ – I share my unique skills and experience on social media to add value to ‘consumers’ and other ‘creators’. 

 

I now see social media purely as a ‘business platform’. 

 

You can leverage social media to share your journey and your unique expertise with the world. 

 

In 2019, I started sharing my experience about personal finance and my new coaching journey on Facebook. 

 

It felt strange and confronting at first. Which is normal. Because I was doing something different. I was putting myself out there to face potential criticism. People who knew me already had a certain perception of me.  

 

Some people were like – “WTF is Marshy up to?”

 

But overtime people started getting used to seeing me post online. I was adding value with my content. And I started to receive messages from people telling me they were enjoying what I was posting. 

 

This gave me the encouragement to persevere and helped me realise that my unique journey, skills and perspective was valuable to others.

 

If you want to make money online (or offline) then you must talk to people.

 

Conversations lead to sales. 

 

Sometimes when we start an online business we can fall into the trap of hiding behind our content. We expect potential customers to just come to us! 

 

This does happen from time to time. 

 

But when you’re just starting out you need to be proactive – you need to be connecting with your audience.

 

Your ‘audience’ is simply the people who follow you on your social media platforms. 

 

If you post a valuable piece of content and someone engages with it – then this is an opportunity for you to reach out to that person and start a conversation.

 

 

Just think of someone interacting with your content online as if it were someone face to face giving you a compliment or asking you a question.

 

Sometimes when we’re sitting behind a screen, we forget we are talking to a human on the other side of the screen.  

 

A simple message like this is all that’s required. 

 

 

From there, an organic conversation can evolve. 

 

It’s important to understand that not everyone who engages with your posts wants to become your customer. 

 

In fact, on my journey I’ve found the majority of my customers have been people who have never interacted with my posts – they’re the ones lurking in the background. 

 

If someone did show interest in what I do, then I would ask them some probing questions to find out a little bit more whether I can potentially help them:

 

 

 

 

These questions help me to understand:

 

 

After you’ve connected with someone through direct messages and built some rapport, you are in a position to ‘make them an offer’ or ‘call them to action’ (CTA). 

 

When I started selling my financial coaching service, my initial offer was to invite the person onto a ‘Discovery Call’ with me via Zoom. 

 

During the Zoom call I would ask them some more questions to work out:

 

1) If they actually had a problem, and

2) If I was the right person to help them solve their problem

 

If I felt like I could help them – then I would offer my coaching services. If I couldn’t, then I would do my best to steer them in the direction of a resource or someone else who can.  

 

I was rejected MANY times before someone finally said ‘YES’ to my coaching services.  

 

But –  as I’ve learned on my online business journey, ‘the yeses will build your business, but the nos will build your character’. 

 

Note: Getting onto a Zoom or phone call is only required for high-cost services or products. 

 

If you want to turn your unique expertise into a low-cost digital product such as an ‘ebook’, ‘online course’ or a simple Google Sheets ‘template’ – then you don’t need to hop onto a Zoom or phone call. 

 

You can simply send the person you’re talking to a link to find out more about your product that has a link to buy. Much like I’ve done with my 21 Day ‘Fix your Finances’ Challenge. 

 

Or, it can even be as simple as a Google Doc with some information about your offer and a link to a Stripe account to purchase (like I’ve done with my ‘Money Mastery with Marshy’ Membership.)  

 

 

Congratulations!

 

You’ve now earned your first dollar online – but now you must deliver on your promise. 

 

When I began my journey that meant:

The delivery of your promise is arguably the most important step. 

 

Because if your product or service sucks and they have a bad experience – then they will stop doing business with you and won’t tell anyone about you. 

 

 

Now that you have your first paid customer and you’re helping them get results – it’s important to collect ‘social proof’ – testimonials of your customers’ experience or their results working with you. 

 

Social proof is the most powerful form of marketing there is. 

 

It shows your audience that: 

 

1) Other people are using your product/service and 

 

2) They are getting results from your product/service

 

Note: this is particularly powerful if your audience knows the person in your testimonial. 

 

Social Proof builds massive credibility with your audience and potential customers.

If you can deliver a great product or service to your customers and help them have a great experience then they will become your best marketers! 

 

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned on my online business journey is to become obsessed about helping your customers achieve outstanding results. 

 

 

When you earn your first dollar from online business it will change your life.

 

It will expand your thinking and open up a whole new world of possibilities for you. 

 

I want you to know that you already have skills, expertise and experience that other people want. 

 

And they are willing to pay you for it!

 

These are the six steps you can take to start your online business:

 

Step 1: Identify your Unique Area of Expertise

 

Step 2: Start Sharing Your Journey Online

 

Step 3: Connect with Your Audience

 

Step 4: Make an Offer 

 

Step 5: Deliver your Service or Product

 

Step 6: Collect Social Proof

 

If you enjoyed this newsletter or if you want me to dive deeper into any specific aspects of my online business journey then please reply to this email and let me know.

Big Love,