I’m going to assume that the answer to the question of how to make money online that you’re looking for isn’t going to be:
A lot of different ways!
I’m going to assume that when you’re wondering how to make money online you’re thinking about how do you start a business that makes a LOT of money online.
And that’s how I’m going to approach this post.
Because it’s not enough to know how to make money online, you should know what you need to do to make money online.
Our Type of Business
Now it’s important to understand the type of business that we’re going to be talking about here.
Oh, and don’t let the word business scare you. Even if you don’t file papers and do any legal documents, you’ll still be running a business.
At least that’s the mindset that you need to have.
So what type of business are we talking about?
We help people create businesses that solve problems for their audience.
This could be through written content on a blog or video content on YouTube.
The goal is to help an audience of people progress further in life with whatever the topic is.
This could be almost anything:
- gardening
- relationships
- how to make money
- knitting
- self-care
- canning
The list goes on and on. In fact, when it comes to choosing a niche for your business we feel that there is an unlimited number of niches for you to select.
The Formula
The basic formula for this type of business and really any type of business is this:
Audience x Offer = Money
That’s it.
You create some type of offer (we’ll get into that in a second) and then you bring in an audience that would be interested in that offer.
And that’s how you make money online.
Every single business that makes money online follows this formula.
Selling t-shirts? Follows the formula.
Selling books? Follows the formula.
Selling ad space? Follows the formula.
Don’t try to argue the formula because it is what it is. No matter what you do, you have an offer and you’re looking for an audience to purchase that offer.
But this is the HOW to making money online.
Now you need to know what to do and for that we can turn to a pretty simple framework.
The Pocket Business Framework
Alright, so we know that every single business out there follows a simple formula.
Audience x Offer = Money
While choosing your offer is out of the realm for this post, what we can do is talk about the Gap.
What is the Gap?
Well, more specifically it’s the Value Gap.
It’s where you know the perfect audience for your offer, but the audience doesn’t know about the offer or understand that it’s for them.
So what do you do?
You follow the Pocket Business Framework!
Don’t worry, it’s not complicated at all.
- Get them to notice you
- Get them to pay attention to you
- Get them to trust you
- Convert that trust into money
That’s it.
4 steps.
If you follow these 4 steps then you’ll be golden.
However, I’m not going to end this post here just with that. We need to go even deeper and do a real example.
Right?
How I Make Money Online
One of the brands that I’m working on is The Obsidian Tavern.
It’s a brand about writing fiction and building worlds.
One of the first offers created for the brand is how to build worlds.
So we know from the formula above that we just need to find an audience that will be attracted by the offer.
Find the Hero
First things first we need to understand the Hero.
The Hero is the one person that we are going to talk to when we write any of our content.
Don’t be scared. This one person actually represents 100s or 1000s of people, but it’s important that you see them as one person so that your messages are received.
People get over 5,000 branded messages a day that don’t speak to them so you want to make sure you’re the one brand that does grab their attention.
Once we understand the Hero then it comes time to implement the Pocket Business Framework.
1. Get them to notice us
This brand is going to take two approaches. One is through blogging.
That means we will be creating content that is targeted for the Hero that we created above.
The better we get at creating content for the Hero, the more likely that person is going to be interested in the offer on How to Learn.
But that only works if they notice us and that usually begins with the Blog and Video titles that you use.
Each platform (Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Blogging, etc) has their own ways of getting people to notice you.
You don’t want to use pointless tricks that actually trick people. It’s important that you build a strong relationship from the start and that always means being honest.
So if you really do have ONE WEIRD TRICK to fix your cavities at home then by all means write about it.
Once you get them to notice you it’s on to step #2.
2. Get them to pay attention
This is where most people fail.
Getting people to pay attention to you means that your content is able to keep them engaged. If it can’t keep them engaged then you aren’t keep their attention and you fail.
Always work on making your content better. Just because you created a piece of content that doesn’t mean it deserves to be read or watched.
3. Get them to trust you
This one simply requires that you continuously go out of your way to help your Hero. Do it with your content. Do with your emails.
Continue to nurture that trust over time so that when you finally show them your offer, they have no problem buying it.
And this is the secret of selling online.
Most people don’t like the idea of selling.
Well guess what?
If you spend more time on getting people to trust you then you don’t have to do as much selling or in some cases any selling at all!
For Talented Underachiever we will continue to pump out content that actually helps our Hero without asking for anything.
All they have to do is show up and they’ll know we are there for them.
4. Convert the trust into money
This happens by creating an offer or multiple offers.
What about ads?
Ads can be fun bonus money but at the moment, Talented Underachiever has 0 pageviews.
If I’m going to create all of this content then shouldn’t I try to make money with it as quickly as possible instead of waiting until I get to 50,000+ pageviews?
If you have an offer ready before you launch your business you’ve set yourself up to make money from day 1.
That’s much better than day 365.
Anyone Can Make Money Online
This might sound like I’m just blowing smoke up your ass, but it’s the truth. Anyone can make money online if they simply follow the steps outlined above.
It doesn’t matter what your offer is as long as you fulfill the promise of it.
If you want to get more specific with making money online then check out our guide on making money with blogging.