How I Made My First Dollar Online

 

The importance of making your first dollar online has nothing to do with the amount you have made but the process you took to earn it.

It really is true that if you know how to make $1 you can go on to make thousands of dollars.

The problem that most newbies face when they first decide they want to make money online, is deciding what method to choose.

There are dozens of ways to make money online that I personally know about and I’m sure there are a dozen more ways I haven’t discovered.

The vehicle or vehicles you first choose to make money online may prove to be a deciding factor whether you become successful, or end up losing a lot of money.

Fortunately for me, I ended up doing both! I did lose a lot of money in the early days, but managed to find success after a lot of costly experimenting.

Here’s a list of a few ways that you can earn money online:

Selling information products (ebooks/audio books/videos)

Affiliate marketing

Adsense income

Google Adwords (Pay Per Click)

Selling physical products

Ebay

Completing online surveys

Membership Sites

Selling a service

Blogging

I’m sure I’ve missed off plenty other methods, but these are essentially the core ways to make money online.

I studied many different ways to make money online and invested a lot of time and money along the way.

I eventually settled on one particular model and spent the last couple of years developing a successful system around it.

What you have to decide is, which method should you choose?

My advice would be to investigate the pros and cons of each one and decide which one you would be happy working on.

Like I mentioned, I tried several of the methods above but decide upon selling information products.

Once I had made my mind up to concentrate on selling information products  - namely ebooks, it was like a big weight had lifted from my shoulders!

I was able to stop worrying about whether to start a different money making method because some famous guru was promoting the ‘next thing to make it big’.

I knew that selling ebooks was a proven, successful business model and as long as I wasn’t distracted by the ‘latest opportunity’, I would do well.

The reason I decided to go with the ebook model was because it was how I first started and it was a model that always excited me!

Even now I genuinely get excited about my next ebook. Not just writing the ebook, but everything that is involved in the process. i.e designing the website, writing the sales copy, getting the graphics for the ebook (ebook cover, header, website template), setting up an autoresponder, setting up the payment process, choosing and buying a domain name, sorting out a web hosting, contacting potential partners etc etc.

The beauty of this method is it can be done for less than a couple hundred dollars. You can have an ebook online and taking orders within a couple of weeks or sooner.

I first heard about making money from ebooks by searching the internet for ‘making money online’ ideas.

I discovered a guy called Phil Gosling who was running a workshop on – ‘how to make money with an ebook’.

It seemed just what I was looking for and I attended his 2 day workshop soon after.

This was the beginning for me and enabled me to set up my first website selling my first ebook.

Although it all sounds very easy, it actually took me over 12 months from start to finish.

I did so many things wrong along the way and made more mistakes than I care to mention. In fact I nearly gave up the whole idea at one stage.

But I remember like it was yesterday, the day I received my first sale!

My ebook was priced at $27.97 and still is.

I continue to make 1 or 2 sales every other day from this ebook and it is run on virtual auto-pilot.

That’s why I concentrated my efforts on ebooks and developed a system that produces a steady stream of money making websites, selling information products.

A lot of the methods and reviews I have on this blog are connecting with the system I have mentioned above.

Information products are my specialised subject, so naturally I will write about them more than other methods of making money online.

Personally I don't know of a more successful system you can model for virtually zero cost.

I would love to hear about your 'first dollar online' story. If you would like to send me your story, I will feature it on this blog.

mmm good idea for an ebook!  

Peter