Don’t raise that eyebrow yet! I’m no online marketer and I promise you that you won’t end up clicking (or even seeing) a link that will lead you to an opt-in newsletter or six levels of overhyped sales funnels. No seriously. This is just me telling you how I got my first $1000. For real.
On Hitting the $1000 Mark
If you asked me years ago on my opinion about making $1000, I would’ve walked out of the conversation because I believe it’s just too good to be true. So if you feel that way right now, don’t worry. I get where you’re coming from because I’ve been there… and for a really long time actually.
Don’t get me wrong though. I tried my best in the MMO niche. From affiliate marketing to selling blog adspace, I’ve tried them all. But long story short, it just didn’t seem to work. I was getting nowhere and the first $1000 seems to be as elusive as ever.
Until my perspective changed.
My Story
I used to be a full-fledged blogger for around 2-3 years (and some people like Hesham still remember me from back then) until I sold my blog about a year-and-a-half ago. Why did I sell it? Because I couldn’t find the time and motivation. Was it the best decision that I made so far? H*ll yes!
Before you even start thinking of selling your blog, I’m just going to clarify that it’s not my point. It’s just part of my story.
Anyway… after selling my blog, I had no idea what to do. I mean, I sold it to get more time, but in the end, I was clueless on how to make the time ‘useful’ so to speak. So for a few months, picture me going on with my daily life with zero idea or means of how to reach my $1000 goal.
This is where my $1000 log journal begins, and hopefully it will inspire you to reach the mark as well.
November 2010:
I’ve been blogless for about 2-3 months now and I don’t have any means of making money online. But I’m still very dedicated to the goal. I realized that if I were to succeed, I needed to do something that I have never tried before because a lot of things that I have read or heard have turned out to be worthless fluff. At the end of the day, it’s important to segregate all the fluff from the real lessons.
I began to brainstorm for ideas. What do I want? Earn a lot. How? By doing something that I utterly enjoy and is profitable. Remember the Batman movie where The Joker says “If you’re good at something, you shouldn’t do it for free”? Well, that’s my motto.
December 2010:
This month, it hit me. I want to create a graphic design business because #1, I love graphic designing and #2, it’s profitable. I am very sure of these two things. However, I had to think realistically for it to work. Graphic designing is a very saturated market and it’s very hard to break into the business. I figured that I have to construct a feasible business plan.
Thanks to the lessons I remembered from great marketing guys, I realized that niche targeting is the key (and it’s also something you learn through blogging!). So since I was a blogger back then (and still am to some extent) I figured that maybe I could target my graphic design business to the blogosphere. Right then and there, I knew it was the right direction.
Since I have a very small amount of capital, I did the work on my own. I built the website, scouted for the team, and did the initial designs. Within a few weeks, I was ready to launch.
January 2011:
I launched the Blog Design Team. I’ll be very honest when I say that I have no idea if it’ll be profitable or not. What I know is that I have a unique service that I could capitalize on. So I did just that.
Launching is a hard thing. Especially if you have zero advertising funds (yes as in zero!).
My only chance was to be creative and resourceful. So how did I initially promote it with no money to shell out? Contacting people. It’s always about finding the right people! Emails are free but it’s invaluable to any business. I built a portfolio from scratch and even worked for free at first just to start the word of mouth buzz. And it worked!
February to March 2011:
I got initial clients within a few days. Money rolled in (and I almost couldn’t believe it!). The trick is to get positive feedback and keep wow-ing people with the quality of the work that I (and my team) provide.
At this point though, I was hungry for more. So I sought a much bigger challenge: to get into a top blog and make BDT’s name more recognizable. It requires effort and a lot of time (which I now have) but I managed to pull off a quality post and had it published at Problogger (dream come true! And I never even managed this back when I had a decent blog).
After getting a lot of publicity from that single post, more clients rolled in. It was the “ta-da!” moment of my online career.
March to Present (January 2012):
Truth be told, I reached my $1000 even when I was just half-way through year 2011. In fact, for the whole year I have earned roughly around $2500 in net profits including all my freelance work. I know it’s not a big number for some, but it’s a HUGE improvement from the zero profit that I was sitting on a few months back.
Up to this day, I continue with my business and I never looked back again to that day when I sold my blog. This year I hope to grow my profit exponentially!
Conclusion (My No B.S. Lessons):
If you were to suddenly forget all MMO stuff that you’ve learned for free or for a fee, then just remember my great epiphany. If you want to make a lot of money online you only need to know what you can do and if people would be willing to pay you for it.
My $1000 Formula = You + Profitable Business
I may be a good blogger but I’ve acknowledged that I’m not that good at making money out of it. Therefore, if I choose to be a blogger, I do so because I just love the act itself. People used to keep saying the cliche that if you love doing something, then money comes after it. But as far as my reality check is concerned, that’s not the whole truth. Yes money comes after passion, but the passion should be something that you know how to monetize in the first place.
There are things you love doing that won’t get money. Whether or not you want to keep doing this is up to you (because what’s money without happiness right?). But if you’re adamant about pursuing a track that’s both fulfilling and profitable, then you have to dig further… as the golden rule says- take action!
And that’s the decision that led me to my first $1000. Comments? Insights? Share your own experiences!
Image © Mike Kiev – Fotolia.com