‘How to earn money online’ is among the top searched terms on Google.
It’s the keyword phrase of our times.
And I get it, everyone wants to earn money online and for everyone that does, there is the snake oil salesperson selling the quick wins.
Bro marketers make it seem that all you have to do is turn on your computer and there’ll be a direct connection to your bank account. *** Say it ain’t so***
Sis marketers will share a lot but only so much. *** friends, do you even have time to break the code?***
But earning money online is more than thinking that if “you build it, they will come” or even being swooned by the biggest, loudest influencer.
It’s about building community, understanding the value you bring to the table.
You’ll need to tap deep into your discipline.
How Can I Earn Money Online? Consistency, Discipline And A Great Offer That Tap Into Needs
It’s also about understanding your horizontals and verticals as well building systems.
If I had a dime for everyone who left the conversation at this point, I’d have tapped into another way to earn money online.😉
If you stuck around, then good.
Because whether you’re already brining in revenue from a digital business or you want to set up something that brings in repeated, recurring revenue, how you earn online is all about consistency and time.
Hey, hey to all the unicorns that built an online biz and enjoyed immediate success and made loads of money right of the bat. I see you. You’re real.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
But for most folks, it will take time for money to roll in on autopilot.
Today, I want to dive in behind the-scenes of my own business as a digital product creator.
What it took to get to the point where I rely solely on my online business to drive revenue to my bank accounts.
I want this to be a personal case study full of actionable advice and touch points you can look at and fold into your own journey.
We’re going to start at the very beginning since I know you’re probably at the point I was ten years ago.
Let’s go!
“
No. 1| Earning Money Online Is All About The Niches
Let me preface all I’m about to say by acknowledging all the multi-hyphenates out there.
They’re the ones with both hands in multiple pies.
They’re the consummate jugglers with many ideas and business flows going on at the same time. And they never lose their focus.
But that probably isn’t you, right?
And it wasn’t me ten years ago when I was coming off the train in Manhattan, with one of my favourite podcasters in my ears proclaiming that: “there are riches in the niches.”
What I took away from those six words, as I faced the cold coming out the subway, was that you really have to strip down your idea and know exactly what it is you want to offer the world.
It’s called niching.
And I want to talk about niching in the vertical dive.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What are you selling?
- What do you want to be known for?
- What will be at the top of your customers’ minds when they think of their deepest challenges?
- Would your product or service ever come as a top solution to their challenge ?
These questions are fundamental. FUNDAMENTAL, people, to the approach you’ll take to earning money online.
Because the more niched you are about what you sell, the more you’ll earn.
This is the first key that unlocks the door to earning money online.
I tell my students in my courses. the clients who hire me and now, I get to preach to you.
There will always riches in the niches.
That was the way forward for one of my retail clients, who went from selling all kinds of clothing in her boutique to selling tailored suits for plus-size women.
And for my student, who went on to devote her social media feeds and content just to talk about all things SEO.
These are actual stories of people I have worked with whose sales increased (in the first case doubled) doubled in the first 6-10 months of activating a vertical strategy
Shoutout to the ladies of the Forward Forty Digital community.
Why I Think Niching Is Important To Earn Money Online
- Clarity: You get clear about what you want to sell online and the marketing of it. All your digital and marketing assets ( your website, social media feeds, landing pages, etc. get sharper. So when people land on your space, they know exactly if you're their person, and if your products/services speak directly to their needs.
- Discoverability: Also, by niching, you become more visible on Google and other search tools, which in turn means more traffic, more leads, and more potential customers.
- Confidence: Niching makes you more confident. Being a specialist allows you to know the ins and outs of you're selling. You become the go-to expert, which nurtures the way you show up in spaces where your expertise can shine.
Owning your niche is a vertical flex. Again, to use my business as an example, we focus on a few specific things at Forward Forty Digital.
I lead a team whose direct lens is trained on online business growth for small business owners—including growth marketing from automation, funnels, systems, AI and digital offers.
There are lots of things I don’t focus on in my business, like becoming an expert in every social media platform or trying to cater to every possible audience—because that spreads my energy too thin and dilutes the impact my team and I can have.
Alright, got it, let’s move from vertical to the horizontal dive.
No 2. | How to Earn Money Online by Knowing Your Ideal Customers.
Alright, you probably knew this was coming. I kind of hinted at it before. ⤵️
You’ve got to know who you serve.
Choosing, knowing, and understanding your audience is the next n=big thing. Remember, you already put your stake in the ground by discovering the exact thing you wanted to offer to the world.
You defined your online product, service, or digital offer in a very specific way.
Now, it’s time to do the same kind of defining with your customers- the people you serve. This is the point where I get the most resistance
“I serve everyone, Judette. I can’t pick just one category of people as my customers.”
But let me tell you, if your online product or service is for everyone, then it’s truly for no one. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I’ll concede that some people never niche down. They’ll sell to anyone who hands them a dollar. And that’s fine—
I’m not begrudging any small biz owner their coins.
But what I’m saying is this: having a clear idea of your primary customer/client is key.
By understanding their deepest desires, their personas (psychographics are as important as the demographics), their challenges and what keeps them up at night you ensure your offer meets their needs.
Y you become the go-to person for that specific group of people, offering a go-to product/ service they want.
Can you hear the cha-ching? Because when you get it right, you can multiply that sound of your virtual cash register ringing a thousand times.
Get Access To My Free Guide On How To➝ Understand Your Ideal Customers. Click >> HERE<< or Below ⬇️
To Earn Money Online Think Beyond Geographic Borders
When you think about having an online business, your customers aren’t just the ones next door, in your city, or your town.
Your customers are all over the world 🌏, and they’ve been waiting for you to tell them that you’ve got what they need.
They’ve been waiting to buy from you.
I’m just sharing what I tell people when they ask how I grew so fast.I became the go-to person for a specific group of people. And because of the systems and automations I created, I tapped into my customers who reside in different parts of the world: US, Canada, Africa, Caribbean etc.
Even though I tapped into geographic diversity there was one thing 90% of them shared in common: they were all female entrepreneurs over 40.
Most were women of colour—black and brown women who were either creative entrepreneurs and/or also female founders coming out of corporate at a senior level and who wanted to set up their own digital offers based on their expertise.
Where both groups intersected was in their deep desire to monetise their expertise and earn money online. These were my people.
Since my professional background was in serving corporate clients from the agency side and doing so in creative and strategic ways. I did this through copywriting, communications design, problem-solving, marketing, advertising, crisis management etc.—I knew how to make those my audiences’ heartbeats one.
I was able to enjoy success just by knowing and understanding who I wanted to walk through my virtual doors
Focus on Who You Serve
If you want to earn money online, be okay with not serving everyone. I know it’s hard, but it’s something you have to come to terms with.👏🏼👏🏼
I promise, if you spend time doing this—understanding who you serve, knowing your primary customers and their needs, and getting inside their heads—you’ll be well on your way to running a successful online business.
No. 3| Grow A Community
The minute you build and nurture a community, you’ll become profitable. Period. This is what I did, but it didn’t start off like that. Yes, I had followers but I didn’t have community, not at the start.
People think product or service first. ***I was guilty as charged.*** Now I know better. In the online business world community takes precedence.
Now whenever I release a new product offer, I think about who is the community I need to tap into. This is not about being obsessed with a follower count on social media.
Here’s how I changed things around.
I started thinking about how I could turn an audience into a community where people felt seen, heard, and valued—where they feel like they belonged. 👱🏻♀️👩🏻👧🏽👧🏾
That’s where the trust is born, where the connections and bonds grow. It’s in these closely nurtured relationships that can happen both on and offline that strangers turn into buyers and later become your ambassadors.
How Community Leads To Sales
One of the ways I ask people to envision a community is by drawing an example from their own lives.
I ask them to think about having guests over for dinner. And when everyone gets there, they are left alone. Why? Because, you’ve have yet to set the table and cook the meal. You disappear into the kitchen. Your guests are left alone.
Imagine that scenario for a sec.
Your dinner invitees are sure to feel uncomfortable. Of course, they mingle but the conversation and ambiance would be so much more of a vibe if you connected folks to each other and they felt the warmth of your presence.
That’s what community-building feels like in an online space.
I’ve learned to do it in several ways.
What I want to sink in is that whatever it is that you sell, someone else does the same, just like you. But not one has your presence, your voice, your vibe.
That’s what people come for —not just for your product or your service, but for the genuine connection with you.
And when those bonds blossom, they tell others, your community grows and it becomes a place of support. Community members will lift you up, cheer you on, and yes, eventually they’ll purchase from you. And that’s because you took the time to make them feel seen.
Related: 👉🏼 How To Build A Thriving Community
No 4| Passive Income Ideas Online
Did you notice something? In talking about how to make money online I never once mentioned the actual online business models that are popular.
And if you arrived here at the end, you probably know why.
Every single one of the online businesses I’ll share below will fail if you don’t consider what I’ve already shared with you.
If you want to build a successful online business that lives RENT fee in your customers head…
One that is referable…
An online business that dances in tandem with the people who you serve…
Then you’ve got to think about factors like niching, specificity around what it is you’re selling and to whom. You’ve got to think about building community and all the building blocks that go with that
Once you work through those then any business you launch will succeed with the right systems and the consistent effort you put into building relationships through your content.
With that said, here are 5 ways to earn money online.
1️⃣ → Digital Offers
This is my favourite way to earn money online because it pulls in all the things I love to do (create an online product or service, build a community around it, build systems, and automate them so I’ll never have to build them again.
Once done, it brings in repeated, recurring revenue.
Caution: Systems take time to create. Thankfully, I’ve developed the AI Copy Collective to help you build and create your digital offers in half the time so you can earn faster.
2️⃣ → Affiliate Marketing
You may not know it but when your favourite influencer touts a product and then give you a link, she makes a commission off your purchase.
Now consider 10s of thousands of her fans buying that one product via that shared link.
That commission stacks up fast. Many influencers have built profitable revenue streams around affiliate marketing.
Caution it works best when you have a solid content marketing strategy, a community and actually love the products you recommend.
3️⃣ → Blogging
Another of my faves because there is money to be made in attracting traffic to your niched blog.
You can write in areas like fashion, food, or even digital marketing like I do. As your traffic grows, you can promote your own products, do affiliate marketing, or even run ads.
You get paid a commission when readers make a purchase from your blog.
Caution: You actually need to love writing, as Google demotes pages where AI is used to write copy.
You’ll also need to buy a domain and build a blog website using a WordPress hosting service/
Tip: If you work with an SEO strategist, you’ll be able to get substantive, quality traffic to your blog within a year and monetise faster
4️⃣ → Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a good way to earn money online When I first did my social media planner as a physical product I used drop shipping to move sales internationally.
This saved me so much on shipping costs which were exorbitant as the demand for the planner was coming from different parts of the world. Shipping from my Caribbean location was as expensive as the product itself.
The beauty of drop shipping is you don’t need to hold your own inventory. You don’t even have to produce your own product. You sell products directly from suppliers, who handles inventory storage and shipping.
All activities are automated and you can actually see what goods are moving and in want quantities just by logging into a platform.
With these things taken care of, all you have to do is focus on marketing and driving traffic to your online store.
Caution: Don’t take a 6 for a 9. Make sure your drop shipper is 100% transparent about all fees up front, and even all hidden costs. Ask detailed questions.
5️⃣ → E-commerce
With e-commerce your sell your own products directly to customers through platforms like Shopify, Etsy, Gumroad, etc.
E-commerce offers an opportunity to build a unique brand and customer experience. Your role is to drive traffic and put systems in place so you’re continuously driving leads to your shop. This is one of the most successful and popular ways to earn money online.
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