How to Be Successful Creating Serious Online Content
The creator economy is the world of online business where intrepid entrepreneurs are able to earn income by delivering digital products and services to the global marketplace. But how much of the creators widely publicized work is serious online content?
Viewed through the lens of social media, online content can look like a world of shouting, hijinks, and scams. The most popular influencers swear, dance, act silly, disparage their enemies or wallow in controversy, all on their way to multi-million dollar paydays and millions of followers.
For serious people, who want calm direction and intellectual conversation, social media is a frat party riddled with the obnoxious and narcissistic dominating every camera angle. The opening for those who want to operate as thinking people appears limited.
For aspiring entrepreneurs who are turned off by social media’s worst excesses, but still have an important message to share and value to deliver, the opportunity to be serious lies in staying true to yourself, and knowing your target audience.
What is the Creator Economy?
The creator economy is online entrepreneurs and social media influencers who produce, mostly digital, products and services under their unique brands. Creators are bloggers, podcasters, course creators, vloggers, digital marketers and affiliate marketers who create posts, articles, videos, audio recordings, and advertisements aimed at every niche in the global marketplace.
Creators earn their income from selling their products and services directly to consumers, selling other people’s products and services, endorsements and advertising on their platforms.
For the last decade, the rise of the creator economy has freed thousands of producers from the 9-to-5 grind as they place more and more content online for an audience with an insatiable appetite.
But to gain ears and eyeballs in the crowded Internet space, creators have to be original, funny, interesting or outrageous to attract attention. This can almost automatically lock out those who want to create serious online content from gaining opportunities and income from a waiting global audience.
Does Serious Online Content Sell?
But there is enormous potential for serious online content creators. A thread exists in popular media that not only continues to attract ears and eyeballs, but also dominates the real forces for change in the global marketplace.
Traditional media have sometimes droning, but important conversations about current issues, established magazines publish lengthy articles covering minute details, and university websites offer credit-worthy online courses based on the in-classroom material.
The problem is that many serious-focused entrepreneurs are afraid to go there.
Creating serious online content has come to mean being controversial, a role few are brave enough to take on. For those who just want to make their audio or video content without making goofy faces, swearing or shouting at the camera, there is a much more difficult road to travel.
Serious people online are reluctant to be called to…boring. But the fear is not backed by facts. An audience exists for serious online content. An audience, not of the millions who watch cat videos, but an audience of interested people do exist for serious material.
Examples of Successful Serious Content
Take Joe Rogan. While many see the MMA announcer with a foul mouth and bro-code beliefs, a quick glance of the descriptions of his podcast episodes tells a different story. In a week, Rogan conducts three to four hour interviews to discuss politics, environment, food production, technology and popular culture. His millions of fans find a way to listen to what is sometimes definitely serious, insightful and lengthy audio content.
Some would argue that Rogan is only able to sustain his serious conversations because he is considered controversial. And it’s been the controversy, not the desire for thoughtful discussion, that have driven millions to his podcast. But once there, the listeners have stayed.
Rogan’s ability to make seriousness pay is a clear example that there is demand for his brand of conversation. There is a longing in the global marketplace, an often unfulfilled cry for substance over nonsense.
These are the people that made the 3-hour plus movie Oppenheimer a phenomenon, who devour the military engineering details in a Tom Clancy novel, and who know the perennially relevant teachings of Napolean Hill.
They are not held to a desire to see only cat videos, they recognize there is more to learn and understand, and are open to finding those creators who will deliver value and solutions without the flash and bang.
Serious Online Content is Important
The global marketplace includes those who are introspective and careful in their purchases. They want to hear more, see more and consider multiple variables before buying. Yet they are still driven by emotion. The feeling they have before purchasing will drive their commitment to the product.
The market for serious online content exists because serious people exist. People who go online to look for solutions to their problems use keywords to Google, enter prompts in ChatGPT, and scour Amazon for books with relevant titles they can use.
All consumers are in pursuit of products or services that deliver health, wealth or happiness. Their desire to buy is in correlation with the depth of their pain, and they are looking for relief. In a fast-moving world, many would like to skip the rah-rah histrionics that encircle online marketers, and get to the point.
How Serious Online Content is Generated
To be serious in the online world without courting controversy is to be committed to helping your audience find you.
Creators with a serious message use all the same platforms as everyone else – blogging, podcasting, videos, courses, speeches, marketing – and remain true to the message. Consumers are watching and listening for information that sounds like it will address their problem. If the message is clear – we help X with X – the consumer will hear it and be curious. After that, standard marketing practices apply.
The message must still be surrounded by social proof that provide comforts to a reluctant potential customer. To buy from you, the consumer must trust you, and that will be based on the information they see, hear and believe. If the message clearly addresses the pain point and shows evidence that it can solve the problem, the consumer is usually ready to buy.
If you are a serious creator, worried about competing in a rah-rah online world, focus on your own words.
Whether spoken or written, consumers are looking for a connection that demonstrates you know where they are coming from and can direct them towards the product or service they want.
Who are the Serious Online Content Creators?
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, who wants to seriously present your product or service to interested customers, then stick to your goal. If you try to be a rah-rah presenter, imitating the worst excesses of online hype, you will come across as inauthentic, and so will your product. By staying true to your own nature and beliefs, you will be more comfortable presenting your product to the world.
However, you still have to find a way to attract attention online. You will need to drive eyes and ears to your pages and feeds to make them offers for the solution they want.
To start, you will need to pick serious platforms for introducing your product. Go to the places where your potential dream customers are gathered. Blogging and podcasting attract millions of readers and listeners every day. Identify the sites where your message may be welcomed and pitch your idea to the site owner. Then use and re-use the content across multiple social media platforms. Guest podcasting will give you both an audio and video file that can be promoted to people who want more information.
Actions for Serious Online Creators
Here are some more ideas for putting your serious content in front of your waiting audience:
- Pick a niche. There are thousands of not-served and under-served niches. Some people want to claim that a lack of discussion means a lack of interest, but that’s not always true. Often, it’s more a lack of courage from members of a community that are afraid to talk about a serious subject they are struggling to manage. But they know they want and need products or services to help them. Step up and speak out, and you will find those who have been hoping you would appear.
- Pick a novelty. Remember the pet rock. Perhaps the most famous fad product of all time, the pet rock was invented by Gary Dahl when he heard friends complaining about caring for their pets. He sold millions of the no maintenance ‘pets,’ to the previously un-served niche of people who wanted a pet requiring no care. To this day, few can explain the phenomenon of consumers paying for a rock, except to credit great packaging, extraordinary word-of-mouth free marketing, and the uncomfortable truth that actions speak louder than words when it comes to what people really think of pet owners.
- Focus on your headlines or ‘hooks,’ including images to encourage potential customers to stop the scroll and listen to or read what you say.
- Get to the point quickly. Make sure your awareness of the problem is front and center in the presentation. If a potential customer does not believe that you understand their issues, they will move on.
- Make a great offer. If you are introducing your product or service, deliver outstanding value at a defendable price to make the offer irresistible even to someone who is superficially searching for a solution like yours. As you grow your community and receive more success testimonials, raise your prices.
- Offer different price points. Some people may buy your core product, but others will need more persuasion. You can use webinars, giveaways or group coaching to encourage people to try the product.
- Align with others. There are entrepreneurs and influencers who are already doing what you want to do. Consider joint webinars, cross guest podcasting and dual promotions to put your product or service on the same stage of an established creator who has a complimentary message.
Serious Creators Should Take Action Now
There is demand for serious content online. Creators who deliver seriously have to still ensure they can catch the attention of their potential dream customers. And you can still get attention without controversy.
Aspiring entrepreneurs do not have to post nearly nude, swear or disparage others to find followers online. Success comes from delivering content that resonates with potential dream customers. But you can only find out if they are receiving what you have to offer when you make yourself, and your ideas available in the places where potential customers are likely to congregate.
If your potential dream customers are on social media, post your serious content with hashtags that lead them organically to your message.
Use paid ads to specifically target potential customers by using their interests to identify similar beliefs.
Join the speaker tour or become an organization member to attend in-person events where you can speak directly to those who are interested.
But most importantly have the courage to be a leader in your field. If you believe in your message, then let people know. Your commitment to your own message must exceed your fear about delivering it into the global marketplace. Although that may be easier said than done now, it is the only way you will ever move forward. An idea in your head is not helping anyone. If you have a solution that works, there is an audience waiting.
Engaged people are excellent and important contributors to the world of serious online content. If you have an online business idea in your head, a message to share with a niche community or the desire to promote a valuable product for the marketplace, you can make a difference as a serious creator delivering value and making a contribution on your own terms.
Three Relentless Actions Aspiring Online Entrepreneurs Can Do Now
An aspiring entrepreneur stays ‘aspiring’ when no action is taken to create an online business.
Many say they do not have the time, money, idea or audience for getting started. But those are all excuses. Anyone who has the desire to become an entrepreneur can change their life forever, by taking relentless action.
The First 3 Action Goals
To get started, an aspiring entrepreneur must have firm control over three key factors and take 3 forward-moving actions:
The factors are: Confidence, Time and Money…
…and the relentless actions are:
- Develop Your Confidence
- Schedule Your Time
- Manage Your Money
Before you dive into the world of online business, make sure you have leveled up your confidence so that you are comfortable executing on the ideas and training you receive, and able to continue to implement until you achieve your goals.
To find the time you need, set a schedule. Even if you have only 15 minutes a day, set that time aside to work on your business and gradually increase the scheduled time.
To finance your business, and as you start earning income, manage your money for success, keep track of your expenses, and set, and expect, a return on investment (ROI) for every dollar you put into your business, events, coaching, tools and resources.
For many, the plan sounds good, but it still does not happen. Relentless action means you start, and continue with implementing the changes necessary to achieve your goals.
But without a radical change in your thinking, nothing is going to happen.
An aspiring entrepreneur can know many proven approaches to getting started with an online business, and could be absolutely committed to making the entrepreneurship dream come true. But another layer of activity is required before the momentum starts to change, and the vision becomes reality.
Confidence
The transformation begins with how you view your opportunity. Business is a confidence game. Several famous businesses were given little encouragement to keep going. But the entrepreneurs who invented them had other plans…and the confidence to keep going.
But first you have to start working on your business…in any form necessary. Confidence comes from taking action. Any action.
Start by setting up your workspace and getting it organized. Watch videos and listen to podcasts about having the confidence to get started. Research your business idea. Find a successful business you can model, and begin immediately documenting everything you can do to mimic their approach.
Do not steal ideas or infringe on copyrights, but you can look at webpage design, marketing approaches, product styles and messaging to get an idea of how you want to market your business.
Conquer Fear
As you begin to complete activities and document the information you are receiving, you may realize that your fear 🎙️ is starting to fade.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs do not start a business because their lack of confidence is based in fear. Close friends and family say that starting a business is a bad idea, and encourage rising entrepreneurs to ‘just get a regular job.’
But your entrepreneur part of aspiring does not just want a regular job. You want your own online business and all of the value that comes with it.
With all the old statements and comments from others rattling around in your brain, as an aspiring entrepreneur, you must find the confidence to move forward on your own.
Know Why You Make the Choices You Do
You can change your relationship to confidence by learning how to acquire it. But first you must recognize that it’s missing. If you have an idea about starting your online business, but have never actually started; if you bought a bunch of courses but never clicked beyond the first video; if you have listened to several gurus but never implemented their teachings; then you are probably just too afraid to get started.
You might be thinking if you succeed, you will lose friends, stability and security. But at the same time, that is exactly what you want.
If the friends you have are holding you back from your true calling, are they really friends? When the stability you want is in a job where people talk behind your back and you do not know your next assignment, is it really stability? If the security you need has you counting every penny and living paycheck-to-paycheck, is it really security?
Maybe getting rid of false notions is exactly what you need. You want to lose all these incorrect perceptions about your own reality.
To move forward, you must really learn how to build and grow your confidence. Study the teachings of popular personal development gurus – you can find videos and podcasts explaining how to understand your subconscious mind and control your impulse to work against your own goals.
In general, personal development education teaches you to understand how you make decisions. It begins with how you think, followed by how you feel. The way you think leads to the way you feel which leads to the actions you take which leads to the results you achieve.
Change your thinking and you’ll change your life.
That’s not just a saying. It’s the implemented reality of thousands of successful people. And you don’t need to outpace yourself and your own beliefs to begin to change your thinking. You can start small.
Schedule Your Time
Use the organization of your time as a real action goal to manage your schedule and give yourself the freedom to work on your business every day. Many people say they do not have enough time, but everyone has the same amount of time.
The high performance billionaire has the same amount of time as the factory worker. The only difference is in how they use it. You must use your time in productive achievement. If you currently claim to have no time, start getting up a half hour earlier or going to sleep a half hour later. For those who claim to ‘need sleep,’ identify where in your day you are not being productive.
Do you stand in line for coffee? Commute? Lean against the water cooler trading jokes? Binge watch shows?
Maybe you have more time than you have ever thought to consider.
Use Your Digital Devices
And if you do not believe you have one hour, start with 15 minutes. Set a timer and give yourself 15 minutes to work on your business.
Schedule your 15 minutes. Put a reminder on your phone. Experiment with different times of the day, but stick to your goal for at least 21 days (then 90, then 365).
Once you schedule 15 minutes a day at a set time every day, and stick to it, you can start to develop a habit…and habits are hard to break.
Sadly too many of us were not taught good habits. We laughed about sleeping in all day. But we are not laughing now that we are struggling to have a comfortable life and do what we really want to do.
No one is laughing about worrying about money, missing vacations, doing a job you hate or living in fear. But you do not have to stay somber. The habit of working on your business will take you from 15 minutes to 30 to an hour. And before you realize what has happened, your online business will begin to form into reality.
And you will want to start laughing again. But you may face another obstacle that has derailed many aspiring entrepreneurs. You may be afraid to make an investment in growing your business because you fear you do not have enough money.
Manage Your Money
One reason we live in a world where many face poverty and struggle is because most people are not taught how to manage their money. Everyone should have lessons in how to earn, invest, grow and keep their money.
Struggle comes from not knowing how to take full advantage of the time that we have. Most working people trade time for money. The money that others decide to pay us. When you trade time for money, the only way to grow towards wealth is to invest part of the money in appreciating assets. Unfortunately, most do not have that leftover part to invest. Because most assume it will be leftover, after all expenses have been paid. But that formula almost always means there is nothing leftover.
To make sure you can invest what you earn, you have to invest before you spend. And one of those investments is in your own online business.
Nothing Left
Some will say it is not possible to invest first because they do not have the money.
But remember when you first started working, you went from zero to a wage or salary. Prior to receiving that money you were alive, somehow fed, clothed and functioning as a civilized human. Yet when you started to earn money, you started to spend it…all of it.
When you received a raise, you spent that too. Same with bonuses, same with gifts…you spent it all. So now you have to go back in time. Go back to zero.
Either cut out expenses, get a second job, start doing freelance work or start your online business now. Your investment funds have to come from somewhere. You have to create a gap between the money you earn and the money you spend so that you can invest towards the money you grow and keep.
Start at $0
The money you invest in your online business is your initial seed money – a loan from personal you to business you, to pay the hosting fee for your website or landing page or to boost a social media post to reach a larger audience.
Start today
As you put your plans together to start an online business, focus on the activities you can immediately do to give yourself momentum. As your initial actions are completed, you will begin to develop the confidence you need to reach out to your potential dream customers and offer them the product or service that can deliver the solution they have been seeking.
Aspiring entrepreneurs too often wait or never get started because they believe they lack confidence, time or money to start an online business. But each of those factors can be addressed and conquered by understanding the impact on your thoughts, and the most effective approach for moving forward.
Your own online business provides the opportunity to achieve professional satisfaction, financial security and lifestyle freedom. In a rapidly changing world, where having a comfortable life is no longer the common outcome, you must find a new path to the life that you really want, and understand the actions you need to take to complete the journey.
Want a Comfortable Future? Start Relying on Yourself Now
Your value to the forces of society depends on what you contribute to their agenda.
In the past, when rulers needed masses of people, you were valuable if you could do the work they needed or fire the guns they manufactured. Today you are valuable, if you can take care of yourself.
That may sound harsh, but perhaps for the first time in history there is no need for masses of people who can settle lands, farm fields or move widgets in factories.
What is needed are people who can think, innovate, analyze and create, especially for those who are falling behind the rise of technology and the transformation to the digital age.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, looking at online business opportunities, you have to move right now to deliver solutions to your potential dream customers. Based on a gap you see in the global marketplace, you probably have a business idea in your head for a product or service that could be valuable to a community you create.
And if you don’t have an idea, you probably are interested in the opportunities of the global online platforms, and are ready to do the work needed to create your next source of income.
In that case, you are ready not just for the future, but also for the present where relying on yourself, changing your thinking, retooling and managing your approach to your own skills is the most important work you can be doing right now.
What does relying on yourself mean?
Relying on yourself means taking a look at your personal resources, the community where you live, and your internal drive to make change. First, you must recognize that no one is going to help you. There is no point in waiting for a handout or a directive to get you the life you want. You have to design the life you want or settle for the one that is handed to you.
If you do not want to settle, you must be proactive and decisive about relying on yourself to get what you really want.
To begin, start thinking only about the life you want. You will be responsible for your health, wealth and happiness. You will have to be ready to act on the opportunities that come your way. You will also have to manage setbacks, as learning experiences. Pull out the best outcomes and forget the rest as you reset to try again.
Also forget about the negativity and those petty fights, real and imagined, that you have with people who you really do not like.
Instead focus on striving for 1000% happiness in all the slices of the circle of life.
Decide exactly how you want:
- Your personal life – select the friends, colleagues and acquaintances you want around you
- Your family life – join with a partner who is aligned with you to build the personal home life of your dreams
- Your business or professional life – do the work you want to do and contribute your value with those who are interested in the same goals
- Your finances – manage your money, learn how to earn, grow, and keep the income you have to cover your expenses, and to secure a cushion for your life and beyond
- Your health – be happy to look in the mirror, eat food that you enjoy, address aliments immediately, get enough sleep and wake up strong, fit and ready to thrive
- Your future – know that you and the people you love, have everything they need today and after you are gone, and that you have so much to look forward to every day.
Build this vision. Now implement it.
How to Make Changes
Envisioning the life you want is the easy part, many people do that every day, but then take no action to make change. If you are finding that’s you, you have to understand why you make the choice to do nothing. There could be many complex reasons, but most begin with ‘fear.’
Many people are afraid to go after what they really want in life because they believe they will fail, and then those around them will laugh or say ‘I told you so.’ Many believe that their dreams are too difficult to realize, or they do not have something – enough time or money, the right friends, the right product or service idea – to do what they really want to do.
Many believe they are too old or too young. Many just do not believe that a person can transform dreams to reality. After all, so many people are taught that you have to be lucky, born in the right place, into the right demographic or get help from the right people.
But none of that is true.
If you study the lives of successful people, you will learn how you can be any demographic, be from anywhere, and know no person of influence, and still fulfill all of your goals.
The common threads that successful people have are desire and persistence. They did the work until they met their goals. It did not matter when, how long, who was around, what the external environment was like, what the news of the day was, the weather, the economy…none of it matter.
They set the goals and worked to achieve them with a focus only on their actions, not on the noise around them.
Set Goals and Make a Plan
To achieve the life you want, you must set your goals and have a plan to achieve them. When you are young, it’s interesting that unless you play sports, you have little exposure to achieving goals. Yet everything we do should be set around goals. After all, we are playing the game of life and there is little point to a game with no goals and no way to measure victory.
Once you have your goals, you need a plan. And history has shown the most effective plan for your career, finances and lifestyle is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a path you control. You do the work, deliver the value, reap the rewards. While you may rely on others to work with you, you are still the boss with the vision.
As an entrepreneur today, you are also at an extraordinary time in history with the Internet and access to the global marketplace providing you with the technology and communication platforms to go far beyond your local community to find your potential dream customers.
You will quickly realize that if you have an idea for a solution, there are no doubt others somewhere in the world who have the need for your product or service, and they are looking for you.
How does online entrepreneurship help?
The fastest, broadest way to find your dream customers is online. You can create an online business in a day and begin marketing worldwide immediately. You will probably get your first ‘look’ from a potential customer on the same day and will quickly find out if anyone is interested in what you have to offer.
Online entrepreneurship is open to any type of person. If you like to write, you can start a blog. If talking is your preference, you can podcast. If you want to be on camera, there are multiple platforms where you can show your face. You only need to understand the platforms and how you can set up and get started.
How do you make the transfer to online entrepreneurship?
Before starting your entrepreneurial journey to self-sufficiency, you should get prepared. Too many people jump in to start a business without accounting for the factors that lead to success – confidence, time, money, value, action and lifestyle.
And there are several foundational activities to take that transform your vision to action by getting started by building your workspace and schedule to suit the vision you have established.
Start today where you are. Take 15 minutes and dedicate the time to doing your first research for your business. If you do not have an idea, start anyway by brainstorming what you like to do and where you might add value. Look at entrepreneurs you admire and see if there is information in their story that you can model to create yours.
When do you get started?
Deciding to prepare first to become an online entrepreneur allows you to start immediately.
Some worry about starting in the spring versus the summer, or on a Monday versus a Friday, or after vacation versus during a busy work week, the real time to start is right now. Many successful businesses were started during historically bad times. Closed doors in one place lead to open doors somewhere else.
The reality to understand is that every human wants health, wealth and happiness, at all times, in all places. If you have a business idea in your head, and you can identify how it addresses one of the core human needs, then you have an opening to start right away. There is no need to wait, especially if you think help is coming.
The only help you’ll have is from your own mind and your own actions.
You just have to get started.
The Impact of A.I. on Your Online Business
The rise of Artificial Intelligence, or A.I., as a tool that average people can use for school, work and business is impacting employment and industry faster than many would have predicted. Aspiring entrepreneurs building online businesses today can use the tools to increase productivity, create content, manage data and make decisions.
But what impact will A.I. have on the popular online business platforms that are the foundation for the creator economy and beyond? And what will it mean for online entrepreneurs everywhere?
The Early Test…
This article was written by a human, but ChatGPT was asked to write the same content using the prompt: write a blog post about how A.I. could impact online business and online business entrepreneurs. You can see the results here.
And if you decide to compare the two articles, you can read how this human written version is, in a word…better.
Here’s why…
Chat GPT focused on the technical and operational aspects of using A.I. in online businesses, but it did not cover the different online platforms, which is the reality for content creators and the focus of this blog post. (9 online platforms are covered as business opportunities in the Real Stories blog series and Ready Entrepreneur podcasts episodes 143 – 151)
Chat GPT did not cover the practical considerations that you have as an online entrepreneur. Plus the app is prone to listicals that betray its origin in pulling information from other sources and not ‘writing’ content for a specific audience.
That said, the list provides several interesting topics that will be explored in future posts. But to get the correct ‘voice’ into a ChatGPT blog, you have to spend time ‘training’ the A.I. to output your ideas. In the near future, these functions will become streamlined, so this blog focuses on the front-facing A.I. app features that can be easily accessed and used today.
Now from the human…
Online users are creating bizarre images, generating six second movie quality clips, asking a program to be a friend, and completing homework, by using online technology collectively called A.I.
The abbreviation for artificial intelligence has become the catch-all for complex technologies involving large language models (LLMs) and neural networks. But that is all the domain of the nerds.
As will be the data applications. A.I. will help all businesses analyze data, predict consumer behavior, define trends, adjust prices and immediately respond to algorithm changes. That will affect your business at some point, but so far these are not the activities of the average online entrepreneur.
For the average Internet user, A.I. is a shortcut to get answers, text, images and videos that are speeding up the completion of tasks, and creating endless entertainment for the millions who now use it daily.
If you are an online entrepreneur earning a living through any of the popular platforms, you can readily see the benefits of using A.I. to create content, especially headlines and advertising. But will that content remain valuable in a world where consumers are looking for original and ‘human’ material?
Yes and No.
Getting started with ChatGPT
You may have begun your exploration of A.I. when you first heard of ChatGPT and began to ask the app questions. Trained by Siri, you were already used to asking a program for help, but within a couple of prompts ChatGPT dazzled you with its rapid response and often useful content.
Once you saw a teenager use the tool to complete their English essay or a consultant getting relevant wording for a $500 an hour presentation, you knew there was an opportunity emerging.
Skipping the ethical issues, especially the copyright concerns and cheating, fears of control by machines, and the unknown impact on employment and income, these early A.I. applications have ignited unparalleled curiosity.
Enough to know you have to understand how A.I. applies to your online business.
Defining A.I. for Online Business
For this article, A.I. means the publicly available online tools that use A.I. models to generate content output for users.
For the most part this is ChatGPT and a few other text based applications, image and video generators including text to video and voice to video, and voice and gesture generators which can use one photo image to generate animated videos.
Many people are experimenting with these apps (most have a free trial) and selecting favorites based on the output quality. But looking at social media posts and advertising, the implementation in consumer-facing business has been limited.
However, there is no doubt that businesses everywhere are learning how to use A.I. to their advantage, and you are already feeling the impact. Having Microsoft prompt you to try Copilot, and Google pointing to click on Gemini, is just the beginning. You will almost certainly end up using the technology before you know what it can do, and you are already impacted by it.
For your online business, you will select how A.I. is used, but the benefits will depend on the platform where you have built your business, and your commitment to applying new technologies.
The Impact of A.I. by Online Platform
Here is platform-by-platform insight into the impact of A.I. on your online business…
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketers promote products and services created by other people, so the impact of ChatGPT will most likely be in advertising. Affiliate marketers are imputing descriptions of the product into the A.I. engine and writing prompts that generate new marketing headlines. This type of content is currently A.I.’s stock-in-trade. Most people who try it for the first time are using text-based prompts to create text-based solutions.
Using A.I. for creating this content will no doubt reduce costs and provide affiliate marketers with a broader range of ideas. It may even be creating new affiliate products.
But the key to being a successful affiliate marketer is to differentiate your offer in the marketplace. By definition, all affiliates know that hundreds, often thousands, of people are selling the same product. If you use A.I. to generate your advertising content, and so do many others, how will you stand out in the marketplace?
➡ If you maintain the core idea that successful affiliate marketing requires creativity and offer bundles to distinguish sellers in the marketplace, then ‘no’ A.I. will not have a substantial impact on your business.
Blogging
A.I. can easily write a blog post on any subject. But the output while factual, and often copied from existing content, is readable, its value varies.
The most successful bloggers offer insights into their subject area based on observations and experiences, or extensive research with original insights. A.I. does not have a social life, or any life at all. It is being prompted to produce output based on inputs, and that’s it.
While it can easily scour the Internet and find answers, it’s organizational and formatting structure is a giveaway that the content is created by A.I. And that leaves A.I’s output less popular than hearing directly from a societal observer with the discipline to post a blog.
➡ Yes, as a blogger, you can outsource the entire job to A.I. if you come up with prompts that create interesting articles, on varied topics with undiscovered spins. If not, you will be posting another boring, possibly copied article, that will eventually be uncovered and undermine your blogging career.
Course Creation
You can give an A.I. app a subject and ask for a course outline – which it will generate. Then you select the subjects you want to include in your course, and ask for the presentation content – which it will generate. So far there is not a quality generator of presentation material including graphics, videos and the color scheme of your imagination, but that should not be far off.
You can also tell the A.I. to create the course in a particular style aimed at a specific audience. To ensure your content is different from someone with the same idea, you have to carefully review the material and change sections into ‘your own voice.’ You should also add your own testimonials and examples.
However, A.I. is missing one secret of great course creation and that’s storytelling. The best online teachers explain their subject in the context of stories that they have woven in to help you learn the material. These are personal stories based on experience, something no A.I. app has developed.
A.I. can give you stories, made up or real, but if you are unable to relevantly weave the story into the course content, you lose its impact.
Allowing A.I. to create the whole course leaves you with bland material. It may be factually accurate, even correctly sequenced, but it lacks the unique perspective that separates regular online courses from the multi-million dollar bestsellers the top gurus distribute.
➡Yes, you can use A.I. to create your online course, but you have to spend time rewriting and reworking the material into a product that is unique to you as the course creator.
eCommerce
An eCommerce store usually sells physical goods to consumers around the world. In fact, many of these stores on platforms like Etsy and Shopify made their name by creating unique physical products that targeted consumers came to love, which means there is a limited role for A.I. in disrupting this platform.
With the exception of marketing, descriptions, images – and maybe new ideas for products, these stores will likely remain free of A.I. upheaval.
However, some of the stores sell digital products targeted at niche markets. And while these products by definition are open to online infiltration, there is still a limited role for A.I. in creating truly original physical products that people want to use.
➡ For eCommerce physical products stores, no, A.I. will not have an impact, but creation and sale of digital products will be a different story.
Freelancing
Online freelancers are providing services to online outsourcers. This is a platform that will benefit from A.I. on every level. Freelancers who provide A.I.-ready services like marketing, graphics design, video creation, copy creation – can still reap the benefits of outsourcing by becoming excellent at writing prompts for A.I. engines. They no longer have to do the work themselves, but can still charge whatever they want for the output.
While some outsourcers will likely realize the freelancers are using A.I. for the work, they will still pay them rather than spend time to learn the apps or hire in-house personnel to focus on A.I. creations.
A.I. has also created new jobs for freelancers. Many businesses need help learning how to use A.I. effectively. They need people who can write prompts, identify the best apps, train the apps for the specifics of the business, create business specific templates and much more.
➡ Yes, freelancing stands to benefit from A.I. both by making work more productive, and by creating new in-demand job skills.
Podcasting
In contrast, podcasting will probably benefit the least. Podcasting is the creation of audio programming, and today’s podcasts provide content for hundreds of niches.
While A.I. will help podcasters and guests come up with new content, and can even write scripts for entertainment programs, the most successful podcasts are unscripted interviews between hosts and individuals. There is little A.I. can produce for the main content. It can certainly create advertising copy, including using A.I. generated voices to read the content, but the main show still has its value in the unpredictable world of thinking and talking individuals.
➡ No, A.I. does not have many inroads into podcasting, except for advertising and some production like writing intros, outros and descriptions.
Social Media Influencer
Social media influencers produce promotional content for brands by adding their unique reviews, lifestyle uses and commentary on the products or services.
Like podcasters, it’s the unique voice of the influencer that is the value they provide, which leaves little room for A.I.
The apps can come up with new promotional ideas and posting content, but the overall vision and theme has to come from the influencer.
That said, an influencer can use A.I. to create an A.I. influencer. If the content is clever, it will be like watching animated shows with product placement. Certainly now while A.I. apps are still emerging, there is plenty of room for clever uses online. And advertisers follow eyeballs, so if enough people are watching, the human behind the bot stands to make a fortune.
➡ But until then, no, A.I. will not disrupt human influencers, until bots become influencers too.
Virtual Coaching
A virtual coach provides advice, insight and implementation plans for clients. A.I. can answer questions, but its answers provide little in the way of tailoring or analysis for specific people.
But as A.I. gets better at ‘reading’ human emotions, virtual coaching by virtual humans will skyrocket. Who wouldn’t want a 24/7 coach and listener who can help you out whenever you need someone to talk to, and probably cost…next to nothing.
Today top flight coaches can cost tens of thousands a year, but if the app can learn to do the same thing they do – like help you navigate opportunities for your business, manage stress or pick out a wardrobe for an official function – then good-bye human.
The best coaches provide, yes, a human touch. But many people only want the advice. They want the To-Do list and activities to complete. They want someone to guide them and help them come up with a plan. Since much of that work can be standardized even in different economies and environments, the apps are ready.
➡ So yes absolutely A.I. will eventually overtake the human coach.
YouTuber
YouTubers make online videos on any subject, for any reason. Since YouTubers can fit into all of the above platforms, they will win and lose with A.I. for the same reasons.
YouTubers who are original voices like podcasters and influencers will remain leaders on the platform, unthreatened by A.I.
Affiliate marketers and bloggers who use A.I. to create marketing campaigns will be just as effective on YouTube.
Coaches and course creators can disappear as YouTube may eventually use its own A.I. to create its own content and keep all the money generated by advertisers.
Your ability to be a successful YouTuber in the age of A.I. will depend on which other platform you choose for creating your online business.
Next Actions for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
If you are just getting started with online business, where should you focus your attention when it comes to A.I.
- Learn the most popular apps. Make sure you know what ChatGPT and the other apps can do so that you are prepared to use them effectively in your business
- Start experimenting. If you post regularly on social media, use A.I. to create images or videos related to your posts. These would all be original content and could start to attract people to your feed simply out of curiosity
- Let A.I. do some of your heavy lifting. When you cannot come up with an idea or need a little extra energy, ask A.I. You do not have to copy and paste the output verbatim, just let it work for you whenever necessary.
- Stay informed, see what others are doing and decide if their output is interesting or too early for your average dream customer.
A.I. is part of our online world now. There’s no escaping the work being done to streamline tasks and become more productive. The value of the tools is seen in many fields. While some may think their jobs are disappearing, the opposite may be true as the entire economy retools for an A.I. world.
As an online entrepreneur, you are on the forefront and need to be among the most informed consumers about the possibilities and challenges of the technology. And the best time to get started is right now.
The Real Story Behind Making Money Online as a Course Creator
Humans need instruction. We have few instinctive reflexes to help us navigate the world around us. We have to learn from others. Our immediate caregivers, and then the entire world. The person who is able to offer instruction to people who want to learn new skills or ideas in a format that is tailored to their needs is a valuable contributor in the global marketplace.
With the Internet, course creation is no longer about one teacher in front of a blackboard with a captive audience of 30 students. Now there are tens of thousands of teachers, and the range of subjects they offer is as varied as the styles they employ.
Course creation is also not just for traditional subjects. Online instructors can teach how to bulk cook and freeze dinners, how to hit a baseball, how to clean out your garage, how to start an online business, how to travel in Bhutan…and so much more.
And they can provide instruction to millions of people at a time. The most popular creators deliver lasting value that energizes their students by delivering the results they want.
As a course creator, you produce packaged material that can be delivered live or on-demand, to an unlimited number of students all over the world.
You build once and earn money over and over again. Course creation is one of the most lucrative online business opportunities because you can scale your price as you scale your sales, and experiment with market demand. You can also customize the course – for example with live training – that increases the value and provides you with direct feedback.
But you have to create a course that people want to buy, and spend a lot of upfront energy to produce a quality product.
Yes, you can create a course about anything – for free. You can post introductory material online and leave a link to the full course, teach ‘live,’ or have a webinar that introduces the ‘what’ but does not reveal the ‘how,’ or even put the material in an app.
But you have to create a product people want. You can end up spending a lot of time and money on creating professional course materials only to learn you missed the target audience. So make sure you are producing for a buying audience.
You earn money from your online courses when someone is ready to buy. But you might have to spend time cultivating those potential buyers, and learn to deliver in different formats. But once you know what your students want, you can charge anything from $27 or $27,000 or more to deliver as promised.
If that sounds good to you? Read on for the details…
While starting an online business is an extraordinary opportunity for you to establish a foundation for your own professional satisfaction, financial security, and lifestyle freedom, to get started you have to select an online platform that fits your interests, skills and budget.
Course Creation is a high risk, high reward way to get started.
If you have an area of expertise or even just an interest, on any subject that requires instruction, you can train interested students through an online course.
You create a framework, pathway, system or open a door to new knowledge that helps people understand your expertise. You can take the course content beyond online presentations by holding live in-person or virtual events. Or you can just put the material up in a portal where people can find it.
If you have the right information, course creation is where you should place your focus. Despite being in the midst of the ‘information age,’ people understand less and less each day.
Just think about:
- The functionality in your smartphone – what do you really know how to use?
- The dynamics of artificial intelligence – what’s it going to do to your job?
- The changing workplace – where do your skills fit?
- The contradictions in healthcare and fitness – what really works?
- The massive amount of available information – what can I really use?
How about:
- Healthy, inexpensive meals
- Buying a fixer upper in this tough housing economy
- Learning to drive a smart car
- Making your money last
Sure people have put information about all these topics into the global marketplace already, but still…no one knows anything.
That’s your cue to step in and fill the void.
If your online platform of choice is course creation, you need to be prepared for the opportunity and challenges.
In this article, I explain the real story behind how to make money creating online courses.
Content Creation is For the Detail-Oriented
Online course creation is about providing information, knowledge, education or training in accessible on-demand formats to students anywhere in the world.
You can teach your own material, or aggregate other people’s information – if permitted – into a more accessible format.
You can teach the material yourself, literally using your own voice and face, or leave it to someone, or something else. So a course creator can be a talker or shy; a speaker, writer or outsourcer; the creator or finder of knowledge; tech savvy or tech averse; a thinker or a doer; and anyone in between.
But you must be delivering valuable information that people want to buy.
The key is content. The most successful course creators produce excellent content that their students can actually use. And when the students are successful, they post about it, tell their friends, and bring more attention to the product.
If you can find questions people want answered, and organize and present an approach that they can successfully follow. You may be on your way to becoming a successful online course creator.
Does Size Matter?
Potential course creators often believe that they need to create massive amounts of content to be considered legitimate. That’s not true at all. You have to be able to take people from Point A to Point B through a process they can understand.
A 20-module course with 60-minute videos and 114 PDF downloads is completely useless if your target customer cannot understand what you are trying to say.
A one-module overview is just as bad.
When people are paying for information, they want results. So your number one consideration as a course creator is the pathway and presentation you will deliver to your buyers.
And you will be able to demonstrate your delivery success through those results. You will need testimonials and statistics from happy customers to prove that your course does what you say it can do.
Who Should Start a Course Creation Business?
To start as a course creator, you need a topic to teach.
From all your interests and hobbies, education and training, or online surfing, where can you add value?
Unlike a virtual coach who has to be visible and hands-on, you can be a course creator no one has ever seen.
If you:
- Have a topic to teach
- Have a method or approach that people can follow
- Interest in promoting and driving people to your process
- Pay attention to detail to create valuable material
- Can demonstrate results – even if you are example #1
…you should consider becoming a course creator.
How to Start as a Course Creator
Before spending endless hours creating beautiful powerpoint presentations, you must understand the topic you intend to teach and the type of students you are hoping to reach.
Talk or Write
Start talking about your topic of interest. If you have created an approach that you think people can be taught to get the results you promise, start telling the world.
Post on social media, guest podcast, guest blog, create mini-instruction videos, start getting the word out. If you receive favorable feedback with people asking for more, you can offer them your course.
Advertise
If your course idea is well-developed, you can go straight to advertising. Use Facebook or Google ads to attract your ideal buyers through great copy that lets them know you have something to offer.
Some course creators advertise the course before they have created it. This gives them a chance to learn customer demand. But remember, if they buy it, you must deliver. So be prepared to create content on demand if you sell it before it’s ready.
Design Your Course
As mentioned above, your course can be any length, scale or format. So you have to know what type of product your dream students are willing to buy. To find out, you can ask them, or start experimenting.
A good course is not about the prettiest powerpoint template. It’s about results. Can your student follow the material step-by-step to achieve a result?
When designing your course:
- Brainstorm to layout the steps and ideas you want to teach
- Add examples and stories that illustrate the points
- Create the material, usually videos, but maybe also audio and text documents to supplement the material, or provide alternative formats
- Consider bonus material for students who want more detail or different approaches
Test
You can post test material – PDF, audio or video – to see if people are receptive to your ideas. If not, try again with a different version of the same material.
Ask for student volunteers, give the material away for free in exchange for feedback and testimonials. But make sure you have serious students who are willing to help and are the potential buyers of the course.
The final product can be free or thousands depending on your skill and how you want to present the material. Black text on a White background that leads people to their goal is far superior to flashing animations and agonizing over font sizes. Just get the material in front of potential students, let them consume it, and deliver feedback and comments directly to you.
But the training must be engaging and valuable. If you keep the formatting simple, keep the delivery fascinating. People are not looking for flash and bang if they are engaged in the information you are telling them.
From Lecture to Business
You move from selling a few copies of your course from a landing page to creating a business when you build a structure around your work.
If your focus is to remain as an online course creator only, emphasize your website or sales funnel where you will be sending new customers. Manage and maintain that site while continuing to promote the course to your interested potential students.
If you are ready to branch out, take your course on the road by offering in-person instruction, live webinars and guest lecturers. But always stay focused on the results you are delivering.
If your approach works best strictly online, then stay online with it.
Making Money with Course Creation
You set a price for your course and have people pay you for it. If it’s good, they’ll tell friends or leave comments on social media, and you’ll continue to earn more.
But that means you have to let people know what you have to offer. That’s marketing. And you can do it for free on social media, podcasts, YouTube or blogs. Or you can pay for advertising. Either way you have to drive traffic to your course page from the places where your dream students are looking for the material.
As your course becomes popular, you can extend the brand to teach one-on-one, speak or create joint ventures with other creators with complimentary products. Find out what supplementary products or services your dream students are interested in next, and be the first to deliver for them.
What Makes Course Creation Successful
Content is the name of the game with online course creation. The platform is flexible, but the demand is the same – results. Students buy the course because of the promised results. Many never complete the course because of the presentation. Try to meet your dream students halfway by delivering the complete roadmap that they’ll need to follow for success.
Is Course Creation Right for You?
A successful online course can be a lucrative foundation for your online business. And you become the educator, aggregator or influencer of a specific topic that you already enjoy. You must make sure you have an offering that delivers results and you are prepared to market your product to potential dream customers.
So are you prepared to find your dream customers?
Will you create all the core and supplementary content that covers the topic you want to teach?
Are you comfortable adjusting your platform and content to meet the demands of paying students?
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, then online course creation may be your platform for earning money online.
You just have to get started.
The Real Story Behind Making Money Online as a Freelancer
Everything you have learned – in school, on the job, during that afternoon course you used to take, on your own – everything adds up to your skills.
And you probably have skills that others do not have because they do not have your unique perspective or singular approach to getting work done. You can combine the information, abilities and knowledge you have to create a service that others are looking to buy.
And you can do it without being tied to a single employer, schedule or pay scale.
That’s called freelancing.
Freelancing has always been around as an opportunity for people to offer their skills to the highest bidder. The most successful freelancers are those who can build a reputation for delivering value on each and every project they deliver for individual buyers.
And with the Internet, online freelancers have the opportunity to deliver products and services to a worldwide audience of buyers.
If you can identify your transferable skills for online delivery, you can have a career as an online freelancer.
Yes, you can earn an income as an online freelancer.
You have to be able to deliver your services over the Internet. That means delivering digital products, consulting, coding, marketing, or even administrative work which can be outsourced to freelancers, anywhere in the world.
Your own how you charge for services – by project, by the hour, by content – and you deliver on your own schedule.
But you have to be responsible, reliable and communicate well.
And you must consistently complete projects that satisfy your buyers requirements, and lead to excellent reviews.
If that sounds good to you? Read on for the details…
While starting an online business is an extraordinary opportunity for you to establish a foundation for your own professional satisfaction, financial security, and lifestyle freedom, to get started you have to select an online platform that fits your interests, skills and budget.
Starting as an online freelancer allows you to earn income on a per project basis, build a reputation for delivering quality, and maintain your skills.
As freelancer, you are creating for someone else’s business. Either you are creating for an idea they have, or you are asked to come up with a new idea that they will use. Either way, it’s their business, not yours. So as a freelancer, you have to be able to quickly understand the business needs, and quickly move on when the work is done.
An online freelance project may take you less than an hour or could run for several months. You may receive a lot of feedback from the buyer, or none at all. Sometimes the short project can turn into a full-time job offer. You decide how much or how little you want to take on.
With a well-written profile and examples of your work, you can begin to attract business without advertising or promotions. And you can keep growing as long as there are buyers who are looking for what you have to offer.
If your online platform of choice is freelancing, you need to be prepared for the opportunity and challenges.
In this article, I explain the real story behind becoming a freelancer to make money online.
Freelancing Requires Real Online Skills
To earn an online income through freelancing, you must be able to deliver completed products or services over the Internet. And you must actually be able to do the work.
There are several freelancer sites that allow you to post a profile and examples of your work. In exchange for a percentage of your fee, they give you access to thousands of buyers who are looking for skilled help.
Who Should Start as an Online Freelancer?
Probably you.
You might be surprised by the range of products or services that can be offered online. If you are prepared to put time aside to work on projects whenever they’re available, and put other work aside to finish on deadline, you can be working as a freelancer.
Pick a Skill
What types of products or services can be delivered online? Take your pick.
All forms of graphic design, illustrations from book covers to advertisements; computer coding and programming; social media management; editing; consulting; coaching, mentoring, data analysis, videos, podcasts, games, music, writing, research…it’s a long list of opportunity.
Although having knowledge and experience in the work you want to deliver is a plus, you can also just be starting out. But be honest with buyers. Create examples of the work you can do so buyers can make a fair assessment of your capabilities.
If you are not sure where you believe you can add value, go to a freelancer site like Fiverr, look at the listings, especially titles and example work, and see where your knowledge and experience fits.
Select Your Platform
Online freelancer platforms like Fiverr, Upwork or Freelancer, all offer the opportunity to sign-up for free, post your skills, and begin to find work. The value of these sites is that they are magnets for buyers who are looking for specific skills. You give up a portion of your project revenue for access to their buyer’s market and the other functionality they provide on the platform.
Comparing Platforms
Every platform allows you to set up a profile and communicate in the app with potential buyers. They also take a percentage of your price – 10% to 20% depending on the scale.
You might cringe at that fee, and it’s not universally accepted, but just remember it’s a cost of doing business. The platforms are giving you a place to find buyers from all over the world who may be interested in your services, as well as security protections, communication tools, training and community.
The fee does often feel like a burden, but like everything it’s a trade-off.
D-I-Y
As a freelancer, you can also set up your own virtual shingle. You can create a landing page or website that displays your skills, and use social media to drive people to your services.
If you have a specific niche, you can also be an influencer in your field, and leverage your posts and other content to encourage people to hire you for work.
Create Your Profile and Examples
You win business by having an excellent profile and examples of your work that a buyer can use to make a decision.
When a buyer is randomly searching through profiles to find someone to work for them, you want to stand out.
Take the time to write a profile that clearly states your background, the work you are able to deliver, and why you are the best choice for a potential buyer.
And create examples of your work for buyers to view. The more information you can offer, the better your chance at being selected.
Start Cheap
On a freelancer website, you will be trying to grow your reputation by receiving 5-star reviews. Once you have a lot of great reviews, the work will come easier.
So start by offering your work at the lower end of the price scale. Some people are only looking for inexpensive assistance and will hire someone to do normally expensive work on the cheap.
Starting out, you may feel cheated if you spend two hours on a project and only get paid $10 (minus the 20% fee), but if you do 5 projects at that price and get 5 5-star reviews, you can raise your prices to attract the buyers who are looking for well-reviewed freelancers.
You can also offer different types of work at different prices. You can keep a $10 basic package to attract interested buyers, but upsell them to more expensive offerings after they make contact with you.
Building a sustainable freelance income takes time, effort, and a lot of patience.
At first, you might find yourself struggling to land clients. Without a solid portfolio or established reputation, convincing clients to take a chance on you can be challenging. This is why many freelancers offer lower rates or even work for free to build up their portfolio.
While this can help you gain experience and testimonials, it’s important to recognize that it might take a while before you can start charging what you’re truly worth.
Like Waiting in the Farmer’s Market
Being an online freelancer is like being a vendor at the Farmers’ Market. You stand behind your table waiting for the buyers to come to you.
Once you have created your profile and defined the work you can do, you are now waiting for interested buyers to find you. This may take days or weeks depending on the information in your profile.
If you offer unique services or have a really eye-catching profile or examples of your work, you may find the buyers coming to you faster than you thought possible. But you do have to be patient.
When you think about freelancing, the first thing that comes to mind is likely the freedom it offers. No more commutes, no more office politics, and no more rigid schedules. As a freelancer, you have the flexibility to choose your projects, set your rates, and work from wherever you want. Whether you’re sitting on a beach in Bali or in your cozy home office, the choice is yours.
But while the freedom and flexibility of freelancing are undoubtedly appealing, they are only one side of the coin. To succeed as a freelancer, you need to balance these perks with the realities of running your own business.
Or Hustling for Attention
Once you’ve landed your first few clients, the next challenge is consistency. Unlike a traditional job where you receive a regular paycheck, freelancing income can be unpredictable. One month, you might have more work than you can handle, while the next month, your inbox could be eerily quiet.
So you can also take a proactive approach to finding clients and projects. This means constantly marketing yourself, networking, and staying active on freelance platforms.
If you really want to make your online freelance income to replace your regular paycheck, it’s not enough to sit back and wait for clients to come to you—you need to go out and find them.
You can use social media, reach out to physical world buyers, attend networking events, send cold e-mails, become an influencer in your skill area, or ask friends or colleagues for referrals.
Whether waiting online at the market or hustling in public spaces, building a steady stream of clients takes time and effort, but if you can transform some of those new clients into regular buyers, you’ll start to see more consistency in your income.
Completing Projects
When the buyer comes to you, make sure you ask as many questions as you need to get the project completed the way the buyer expects. Some buyers do not know exactly what they need and could be relying on you to provide them with tips and guidance.
When setting up your service, set the parameters. Will you allow revisions? Do you want to speak to the buyer first to clarify questions? What format do they want to have delivered? What is the turnaround time for the work requested?
Look at how other freelancers have set-up their offers and select the best examples that fit your skills.
And always deliver on time. Sometimes things happen, but in the freelancer world, you want to be known as someone who delivers quality work, on time.
If you have to deliver late, tell your buyer and provide a new time frame.
But remember, without the structure of a traditional job, it can be easy to overwork yourself or, conversely, to fall into the trap of procrastination. Successful freelancers know the importance of setting boundaries and sticking to a schedule. This might mean setting specific work hours and taking regular breaks.
Communicate
The best way to work successfully with buyers is to communicate. Before, during and after the project, keep asking clarifying questions as necessary.
Let them know about any expected delays.
Over deliver if appropriate. If you created test examples for your work that may be helpful to them, go ahead and deliver those also. You don’t have to do more than defined in the requirements you agreed to, but a little extra goes a long way to building your reputation for excellence.
Ask for Reviews
The freelancer platforms generally encourage buyers to leave a review, and you can do the same. Be polite and respectful about the ask.
For example: “I’m thrilled you are happy with my work and I hope you would consider leaving me a positive review.”
Remember in a world of random selection, reviews are the name of the game.
Making Money as an Online Freelancer
Earning income online as a freelancer is direct and simple. You do the work, you get paid.
If you are on one of the freelancer platforms, the money is collected at the beginning, and held for a period of time – usually two weeks – after the work is done. Disputes are managed through the application, and there are plenty of rules and ethical practices to support you.
If you are on your own, you can still collect the money upfront, but there is no ‘middleman’ to arbitrate disputes or deal with refunds. When working on your own, make sure you build up a good rapport with your clients, be transparent about your prices and policies, and deliver excellent work on time.
In the digital world, you actually have a record of all your conversations and deliveries, and even your production for the project. This is when you’re happy that everything can be traced. Keep up-to-date quality records and avoid conflicts by documenting everything you do.
The Reward: A Lifestyle of Your Own Design
Despite the challenges, the rewards of freelancing are undeniable. As an online freelancer, you have the power to design a lifestyle that works for you. Whether you’re a night owl who prefers to work late into the evening or a parent who wants to be home with your kids during the day, freelancing allows you to create a work-life balance that suits your needs.
With time, experience, and persistence, online freelancing can become a lucrative and fulfilling career. Some freelancers find themselves earning more than they did in traditional jobs, with the added benefit of flexibility and independence.
Is Online Freelancing Right for You?
But freelancing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a legitimate career path that requires finding buyers, understanding their requirements, delivering quality work on time, and repeating the same often enough to replace your current income.
So are you prepared to handle the uncertainty of inconsistent income?
Are you disciplined enough to manage your own schedule and workload?
Do you have the patience to build a reputation and client base from scratch?
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, then online freelancing may be your platform for earning money online.
You just have to get started.
The Real Story Behind Making Money Online With Affiliate Marketing
Somewhere, clever marketers, strategists and designers are assessing marketplace demand, looking at offerings, and creating a range of products for other people to sell.
They specifically put together packages of material – landing pages, videos, banners, images, graphics – intended for promotion and sharing among a community that has no connection, no network and no bond except the product itself.
That is affiliate marketing. A stand-alone multi-billion dollar industry covering every product category imaginable, and providing opportunity for those who have no talent or inclination for upfront creativity or complex investment.
The affiliate marketing opportunity is an open door to online business for the range of entrepreneurs who have yet to define their own unique product, but are prepared to deliver their singular perspective to others.
While starting an online business is an extraordinary opportunity for you to establish a foundation for your own professional satisfaction, financial security, and lifestyle freedom, to get started you have to select an online platform that fits your interests, skills and budget.
Affiliate marketing provides a low cost and diverse entry to online platforms, with an opportunity for a robust revenue stream if you can promote and market to an identified target market.
If you think you would like to promote other people’s products, in the context of an endorsement or recommendation, your online business can be affiliate marketing.
But do you have the tools to creatively promote products you had no role in creating?
If your online platform of choice is affiliate marketing, you need to be prepared for the opportunity and challenges.
In this article, I explain the real story behind becoming an affiliate marketer to make money online.
Affiliate Marketing is For Promoters
Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting and selling other company’s products in exchange for a percentage of the sale or a commission.
With the number of businesses running affiliate programs increasing every year, the range of products on offer has made affiliate marketing a multi-billion dollar industry.
An affiliate can promote almost any product, using any legitimate method that will drive clicks to their affiliate link, and begin to earn income without worrying about the actual product creation or manufacturing.
For an aspiring entrepreneur trying to learn business models, being an affiliate provides a worthy training ground in marketing techniques and practices…
…and an uphill struggle to separate a product that possibly hundreds or thousands of others are promoting at the same time.
To be successful, the affiliate marketer must establish a strategy that works for any type of product, and repeatedly apply it across different online platforms to achieve results.
The Trick is Your Attention
From travel to gaming, romance to survivalist tools, technology to hobbies and beyond, affiliate marketing products cut across every industry and category. When you become an affiliate, you can almost certainly find products that match your interests and experience.
Affiliate marketing includes signing up to promote a product you already use, linking to a range of products available in stores, and becoming a member of a dedicated affiliate marketing site which partners with thousands of other companies specifically to create opportunities for affiliates.
It is the latter which will be the emphasis of this article, as signing up for an affiliate program is the deliberate form of getting started.
Who Should Start Affiliate Marketing?
If you want to start an online business, but have no idea how to set-up and market a product, affiliate marketing is your direct path in…
If you:
- Enjoy researching products
- Are prepared to promote
- Have or will create a platform for promoting
- Have or will cultivate a consumer community
…you should consider becoming an affiliate marketer.
You can select the products you want to promote, and the platform from which you will be promoting, and then let the funds come to you.
How to Start Affiliate Marketing
The affiliate marketing platforms are sites – including Awin, Clickbank and Flexoffers – that list thousands of affiliate products available for third parties to promote.
On the site, you sign-up for a free account, browse the offerings, get your affiliate links, and begin marketing on your preferred platforms.
When a consumer uses your link to purchase the product, you collect your percentage or commission. The affiliate sites usually have statistics on sales and commissions to let you know which products are the most likely to be selling well.
Some products stay at the top of the list for years, and are marketed by thousands of affiliates. But once you know how you want to proceed, you can put the product in front of your own community.
You must follow the product rules before you start promoting. Some companies do not want direct ads on Facebook or other social media platforms. To avoid being associated with spam, the Amazon Affiliate program does not want direct links from emails to their products. Some companies require that affiliates receive permission to promote, others leave the offers open.
All of these issues must be taken into consideration before you begin placing the product in front of new potential customers.
Where to Market Affiliate Products
Once you understand the rules for marketing a particular product, then the challenge in affiliate marketing is to decide how and where you will market the products. Your strategy may determine your success, and your ability to turn your affiliate marketing into a business.
Affiliates have created a multitude of approaches for marketing, among the most popular are landing pages, product specific content, product tie-ins, and paid ads. And you distribute one or more of these options via social media, email or even in-person.
Landing Pages
A landing page is a stand-alone webpage. On the page, you can create any content you like – videos, text, images – about the product. You give potential customers the page link, which in turn has your affiliate link to the product.
To create the landing page, you can use a service like Click Funnels or Leadpages – both have a free 14 day trial before switching to paid.
The key to a successful landing page is to make the page copy compelling, and targeted to the audience you are trying to reach. You can either write the copy yourself, or outsource it to a freelancer who can create the wording for you.
You drive people to your landing page to create the pre-sell or pre-suasion that prompts them to click on your affiliate link, and purchase directly from the product site.
Product Specific Content
To help your customers decide on the value of a product, you can create informational content – blogs, podcasts, videos – that provide background information, further research, details or data about the product that is not readily available elsewhere.
If you make the content legitimate and not strictly commercial, you are providing future customers with value prior to making the sale.
Creating this content may cost you time and money. You can invest in equipment, record, edit and distribute, and promote the content directly to prompt customers to go indirectly to the product.
But additional content is an excellent differentiator in situations where thousands of affiliates are promoting the same product. If you target the content to niche customer groups, you can also find customers who may be ignored by the other marketers.
Product Tie-Ins
If you have your own products – books, courses, physical products – that can be appropriately connected to an affiliate product, you can promote the affiliate product with your product.
For example, if you offer a book for free in a sales funnel that leads to affiliate product offers on the thank you page. The affiliate products should fit with the story in the book, and the connection can be explained on the landing page.
Look at your own products and determine if any would work well with the affiliate offers that you see listed on the affiliate site.
You can then create a sales funnel or landing page for your product, with the affiliate links on a second page or on the confirmation or thank you page.
The idea is to put the affiliate product in front of your customers as an option, an extension of your main offer. You do not want the affiliate product to overwhelm your main offer, or be in conflict, so select your affiliate product with care, and present it as a natural additional offer.
Paid Ads
If you have money to spend, you can create ad copy and drive customers directly to the product landing page by buying paid ads. Some platforms, and companies, have strict rules about how ads are to run and identified to viewers. Everyone is trying to avoid appearing like a scam. But assuming you follow the rules, ads are a direct and effective marketing tool.
The key to paid ads is to keep your ad costs below your commission payouts. And you can do this through excellent ad copy.
You can learn to write ad copy yourself, or pay a freelancer to do it for you. Developing the skillset yourself gives you more flexibility. You can adapt and change ad campaigns as the market requires without having to be constantly paying a freelancer to do it for you.
To run paid ads, select your preferred ad platform – Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – set up your account, set a budget amount, create your copy, post your ads, and frequently monitor the results.
Many entrepreneurs set up paid ads and let them run without checking for effectiveness. This approach will certainly cost you more than you need to spend. Stay on top of your ads, and protect your investment by making sure your ad strategy is delivering for you.
If the ads are not working, stop running them, and either tweak the ad copy or try another strategy.
Making Money with Affiliate Marketing
Since the only way to make money as an affiliate is to have customers buy the product through your link, you have to make sure you are promoting your link in places where your customers are located online, and that you give them a compelling reason to click and learn more about the product.
The product companies will tell you about the successful conversion rates and high commission values, but it’s up to you to try and duplicate the results for yourself.
Affiliate marketing can be a promising and lucrative business, if you find the right approach for the people you are trying to reach, and consistently present them with a message they cannot resist.
What Makes Affiliate Marketing Successful
Once you have found your community of buyers, you can continue to promote appropriate products to them again and again.
In a consumer society, people always find a reason to buy – to improve their health, wealth or happiness – in a complex world.
Your ability to be successful doing affiliate marketing depends on identifying the desires of your customer base, and delivering solutions to them that they will want to purchase.
The more you can convince people of the value of the products you’re promoting, the better your chance to become a successful affiliate marketer, and make other people’s products, your business.
For Case Lane Affiliate Products:
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Disclosure: This article contains affiliate link that earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting the Ready Entrepreneur blog.
The Real Story Behind Making Money Online With YouTube Videos
by Case Lane
You know once seen…a dramatic image cannot be unseen.
We do not say this about information we hear, or notes we write down. But what we see stays with us as an impression we cannot shake.
When you are trying to decide which online platform you want to use to build your online business, if you want to choose videos, you can start a YouTube channel with information, guides or even commentary that attracts an audience.
Being a YouTuber, for lack of a better term, is actually one online business that literally requires no investment. But it also requires the highest level of courage. You have to be comfortable on camera, or artistic or creative enough to create images that do not require you to be on camera.
And you have to be consistent and popular enough to attract the minimum audience that allows you to earn from advertising on YouTube. That may be a challenge, but if you make it work, you can also attract sponsorships, build a community, and become a web search recognizable influencer for your subject area.
While starting an online business is an extraordinary opportunity for you to establish a foundation for your own professional satisfaction, financial security, and lifestyle freedom, to get started you have to select an online platform that fits your interests, skills and budget.
Videoing is a powerful communication medium that only requires a minimum audience to begin earning advertising revenue.
But are you camera ready?
Does the YouTube platform have all the elements you want and need for an online business venture?
If your online platform of choice is to be creating videos, you need to be aware of the joys and limitations of the effort.
In this article, I explain the real story behind starting a YouTube channel to make money.
YouTube is For Creative Imagers
YouTube is a video hosting platform that as a division of Google is also a search engine the second largest in the world, delivering answers to questions asked every second by searchers. While there are other video platforms, and it is possible to build a following on another one, YouTube remains the dominate force for all viewers.
YouTube is the search engine results come to life in picture. You will find content that ranges from short How-Tos, to multi-hour courses, trailers to movies, questions to indepth interviews, book quotes to novel readings, reviews, music, podcasts, speeches, news reports, documentaries, commentaries, comedy routines – from every era of video recording to the present day – from every corner of the globe and outerspace.
Five hundred hours of video uploaded…every minute!
One billion hours viewed…each day!
And what may look like insurmountable odds for getting noticed for the average new YouTuber is actually the opportunity to create a business based on your video recording capabilities.
With tens of millions of viewers scrolling the site every second, looking for new and original content, the videos that will be the next to go viral, are the ones that attract enough attention to convince someone to share.
And the shared videos can skyrocket a YouTuber to success overnight.
Creativity is the Answer
Music videos are the most watched videos on YouTube. The genre defined by the rise of MTV (the Music Television cable network) now has a dominant home on the platform. And it was music videos that transformed from bands standing on stage to opera-worthy movie productions that made the MTV generation take notice.
Luckily, you do not have to compete with music videos.
Because the next level of dominance belongs to How-Tos where viewers will take any step-by-step explanation that they can follow and copy.
And commentaries and reviews, where honest words, clever presentations and solid content pre-dominate.
But to operate in this space, and be recognized, the videos that attract the attention are the most creative. While the content is important, the design of YouTube videos – drawings, special effects, spectacular settings, bright lights, awkward angles, intriguing props – all make for videos that can catch…and hold the attention of viewers.
The creator who can take an instructional or motivational video, or a spoken-word piece or lecture, and turn it into art…will stand out and move forward on YouTube.
Who Should Start a YouTube channel?
Whether you want to unleash your image creativity or simply speak directly to the camera, you will have to find content topics that your potential viewers are seeking.
If you:
- Like to be on camera
- Have enough creative ideas to be behind the camera
- Are prepared to promote
You could consider starting a YouTube channel. And you control the amount of work you do by deciding how elaborate or plain-spoken you would like to make your videos.
How to Start a YouTube Channel
Of all the online platforms, YouTube is actually the only one that really requires no investment. Assuming you have a digital device with a camera, microphone and access to the Internet, you can make videos and post them to the platform.
But on YouTube, you are literally competing with all the media companies, global advertisers, and world-class performers who also use the platform for their promotions. While this may be true with other platforms, the issue with YouTube is that it’s so easy for your potential audience to become distracted by another video.
YouTube constantly feeds viewers suggestions of other videos that they may be interested in seeing, and unless you have a significant library of content, the recommended videos will not be yours.
The challenge with YouTube is getting your potential audience to notice you, and to do that, you need the next level of creativity.
Using YouTube
Technically, uploading videos to YouTube is straight-forward. Once you have recorded, and possibly edited your video file, you can upload. But truly understanding the functions and capabilities of the platform can take you to a new ‘school,’ where you can spend time learning how YouTube really works.
As a beginner, take the time to go through YouTube’s own training videos to learn the basic functions, language and best practices. As you become more comfortable with the platform, you may find there are features you would like to incorporate to extend the impact of your videos, and drive viewers on to your content.
Start with Content
Whether you are explaining How-To, or commenting on the state of the world, your YouTube video must be able to hold the attention of the viewer.
Before you start recording, think through your presentation. If you’re creative and adept with video tools, you might be able visualize a spectacular layout. If you’re thinking only of the words you will use, focus on how you will present them.
You on Camera
If you plan to be in front of the camera, as most YouTubers are, you will have to consider how you want to look.
This is where video can cost you money. You can invest in an external camera, ring lights, stands, green screen (for virtual backgrounds), and stand-alone microphone. Even your clothes, hair and makeup, and room props can be stylized for your intended on-screen presence.
While many rage about the need for authenticity in marketing and online business, it’s hard to imagine that many of the videos you see are spontaneous creations by singular individuals. The polished smiles, cute poses, hand gestures, and clean backgrounds all speak to a level of intention in creating the ‘right’ atmosphere for their presentation.
As you decide what works best for you, consider your audience, who are you trying to reach and why a particular approach might appeal to them.
Props for Your Vision
To separate your videos and establish your creative presence, you are going to want to make an investment in time, money or both.
And your YouTube channel can cost you even more money.
You can differentiate your videos by adding virtual effects like dynamic headlines, or real props that allow you to stand out. Some of these editing options are included with video software, some can be bought separately.
Recording and Editing
Creating your video can be as simple or as complicated as your budget will allow. While high quality, professional videos are great, they are not always what works best on YouTube.
If you are doing an explanation video on your desktop, a screen recording using Screenflow (for Mac) or Camtasia (for PC) would be sufficient for viewers who are looking for information.
But if you want to make an impactful message video about major issues, you will want to separate your work from all those who are doing similar activities. You can record your own live video, or use apps that have pre-cleared live video scenes that you can incorporate with your own words and graphics.
And once you have recorded your video, you can spend time editing to include music, layered images, additional videos or other features that create a polished product.
You can do all this work yourself, or outsource editing, if you have the budget for those costs. Either way, when your video is ready, you can upload directly to YouTube and be live.
Making Money with YouTube
YouTube is the only major platform that enforces minimum interest numbers before allowing you to profit from your content. As of this writing, you need 1,000 subscribers to your channel, and 4,000 hours of viewing to monetize your video channel with advertising.
But prior to reaching those numbers you can still make money if you are able to obtain sponsorships or promote your own products.
Sponsorships
Being a YouTuber is one time when using other people’s products can be particularly lucrative. If you are creating videos that use specific products to tell the story, you may be able to have the products’ companies sponsor your videos.
You will have to show you have an audience, and deliver a sense of the value the sponsor could derive from the video. Sometimes advertisers will only be interested in sending you more free product to promote, but others may be inclined to pay you a fee if you have a niche audience they want to target.
For sponsorships, it does not hurt to ask for the opportunity, and see how the potential sponsor responds.
Product Promotion
You can also be your own sponsor.
If your videos tie in with your own products – books, courses, physical products – you can either incorporate them directly into your videos, or simply place links in your video description.
Promoting your own product can enhance your video’s message, if you are aligned with the message of your video.
Of course, blatant direct promotion with no value will not win you any viewers. But information tailored to help your audience can be seen as integral and effective in reaching out.
Advertising
If you continue to grow your channel organically using messaging that supports your audience’s interests, you will eventually hit the numbers necessary to profit from advertising on YouTube.
At that point, YouTube’s own programs will step in to direct ads to you based on your video content. As your channel grows, with viewers and likes, your advertising revenue can grow also.
Although you can indicate certain preferences for ad placement on you YouTube videos, in general Since YouTube controls the ads, and there is no option to do your own advertising with affiliates like you could with a blog or podcast. But as mentioned previously, you can incorporate any type of advertising directly into your videos, and make them part of the creative process.
What Makes YouTubing Successful
The numbers really are spectacular. If you can drive viewers to your videos, and your videos are shared, you have an opportunity to make more money.
YouTube is part of the search engine, writing your video title and description to include keywords and search terms can help drive discovery. Many people go directly to YouTube when searching for specific information. They want to consume a video rather than read a post with the same details. If you plan to be YouTubing, you should keep that in mind.
Successful YouTube channels have consistent valuable content, usually a lot of it. Once viewers find a look and style that’s appealing, they want to return for more. If you enjoy making your videos and can continue to deliver new and different subjects, your audience will continue to grow.
The real story behind YouTubing to make money online is that while you can start for nothing, you have to differentiate your videos with creativity that you post, share and cultivate for an audience that will keep coming back for more.
YouTube is a huge platform and a key element in search, if you can align your own creativity and ability to attract viewers, you will benefit from the opportunity to turn your YouTubing into an online business.
For Case Lane’s YouTube channel, click here:
The Real Stories Behind Making Money Online Blog Series
What does it really take to earn an online income? Is there a trick? A special sauce? Magical fairy dust?
Or is it just about hard work, perseverance and persistence?
Or do you have to get lucky? Know the right people? Have friends who will buy your stuff?
The Series
In this multi-part blog series (which is also a podcast series), Case Lane takes a detailed look at eight online business platforms, and answers the questions every aspiring entrepreneur wants to know:
- Am I the right type of person to start this business?
- How do I get set-up?
- Where does the money come from?
The Platforms
Click the image or blog link to read the Real Story Behind the Online Platforms that interest you.
And if you are not sure which business to start…read the whole series or listen to the podcast episodes on The Ready Entrepreneur podcast episodes 143 to 150 here: https://www.readyentrepreneur.com/podcast/
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