Here I've put together all my best tips for making money online into one big cheatsheet.
A) It takes time. My ultimate advice has always been that you need to stick at it for years. Not weeks, not months but years. My rule of thumb: 5-10 years of obscurity before you figure out enough stuff and learn enough to make it work.
B) Social Media isn't actually that important. I have a twitter account, I have an instagram account etc etc. They don't have many followers. I don't think I've made $1 from them. I've made thousands without social media.
C) You do need a website. Social sites come and go. Money making methods come and go. Websites will always exist. So you need one. Think of a website as your homebase. This isn't mine. This is just my diary. I've built a homebase that is going on 10 years old – and as you can imagine it's fucking valuable.
D) Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in the one basket. If you're making 100% of your income from one affiliate program and it suddenly dies (has happened to me before) you're fucked. Spread things out. Target multiple affiliate programs, have a backup website etc. However…
E) Focus is important. Don't jump from one thing to another every week after if nots working. Read point A again. It takes time! Stick at it.
F) Ignore all “make money at home” scams. Never pay for a product on Clickbank. Never pay for anything on the warrior forum. They are all scams. the people who are actually making money don't tell people exactly how they do it. Stop buying that crap. Notice how I never actually tell you the websites I own??!!
G) Stop working for cents. Don't join sites that promise to pay you a few cents to click a link or read an email. Or the sites that pay you $1 for writing hundreds of words etc. You will never ever succeed using these methods.
H) Invest in opportunities that have huge upside. Last month I dropped around 10k on domain names. Not lots just two quite valuable names. These are investments. If I build a site on these domains and it works out, I could be in for a 100K+ return. Invest in yourself. Don't save money away. Be a risk taker and make a move.
I) Be Unique. Working on an affiliate offer that nobody else is doing is 10 times easier than trying to promote something like Hostgator or Bluhost where everybody is promoting it. Look for opportunities which are new and haven't been exploited by the stupid masses.
J) Spend 90% of your time making. 10% communicating. Most people talk 90% of the time. Trying to network, emailing, setting up deals etc. I don't do that. I spend 95% of my time actually building stuff. And I occasionally check my email. I make enough to hire an assistant to read my email for me. I don't answer phone calls – my friends msg me. Just focus on building.
K) Take Time Off. You don't need to work 18 hour days. You don't need to be “busy” all the time. The people who run around looking “busy” actually achieve very little. I get 8 hours of sleep, I look after myself and take days off every week. I still launched a new product last week, got a fuck load of press and attention and still managed to take the weekend off.
L) Sell Your Company. Two sides to this. If you sell your company too early, you could leave money on the table. But don't be afraid to cut and run sometimes. But this shouldn't be a yearly thing. This is an occasional practice. Selling your company could mean having to start from scratch. So think carefully about this. Of course selling gives you cash. Which is nice.
M) Search Engines still rule. SEO doesnt. I havent built backlinks for years. But somehow you managed to find this page. If you create good content + add time then I've found that search engines will show you some love. The SEO guys will get all hot and flustered and tell me i'm wrong. However, they work for $$. I make $$$$$. Because…
N) Good Content is King. I'm not a great writer. But I can write content that is better than 99% of similar content written by some indian guy working for $1 an hour. I'm always going to be better than that. I don't be afraid to create controversy. Always write honestly. And don't copy content – it doesn't work. If you can't write spend 10 years writing a blog. I did that.
O) It's Not Easy. Obviously or everybody would be doing it. A lot of people make money online. Most people don't however. But there are lots of opportunities. It does take skill.
P) Learn to Design, or Code. Or learn to design and code like me. The combo is hugely valuable. Whenever I think of an idea, the difference between you and me is that I can build it. To me that is fucking incredible. Being able to think of something, and then sitting down and 48 hours later, it exists. Learn to code. Then learn to design. If you can make your code look pretty with design, people will give you money 🙂
Q) Experiment. I bought bitcoin, I still trade forex using copytrading. I like experimenting with different ideas. Most of the time I end up ahead. You'll never know what will take off in a big way. So be prepared to experiment with things like bitcoin. But…. you're about 2 years too late to invest in bitcoin. You have to be on the edge of ideas.
R) Build websites. Build software. Build apps. Aka Build. The money is in building and owning an asset. Not writing pages on Squidoo etc. There is no money in that.
S) There is no secret method. There are however literally hundreds of thousands of different ways to make money online. So its up to you to discover on your own through trial and error what works. You won't find the answer on a blog like this.
T) Build a portfolio. I think I own about 6 apps, 10 websites. I don't know how many hundreds of domains I own. But lots. Although I recommend focusing on just one project to begin with, over time, when project number one is making $$$ each month, move onto project two etc. Owning some domains is also a good way to store value. I sell a lot of domains each year.
U) Outsource. Once you are making $$$$, hire someone to handle all the mundane tasks that require no creativity. Automate as much as you can first. Then all the stuff that can't be automated, outsource. There are still countries where your dollar can hire someone on the cheap.
V) Having trouble. Spend 30 minutes each day. If you're not having success. Spend 30 minutes each. Each and every day. Then once you've figured out what you were doing wrong you can ease off. 30 minutes each day will ensure that you are at least moving forward. Most people give up after about 2 weeks of doing something. Read point a again. It takes years. Can you spend 30 minutes for the next 2 years? If not then you might as well stop reading.
