Let’s talk about how you actually make money. I’ve spoken recently about how my kids have started a YouTube channel where they share recipes & teach kids how to cook. As they’ve started down their business-building journey, we’ve been able to have some good talks about how you can make money online. Here are my top 4 ways to make money that I’ve shared with them. 

How are you actually going to make money from your business? We have the idea that you need a lot of followers on social media to make money. That’s not correct. You really just need a product of some sort to sell to start making money.

4 Simple Ways to Make Money Online

1. Physical Products

Physical products are great because someone can have a physical response to it. Customers can purchase my planners and hold it in their hands.This is opposed to a digital course that is accessible online, but not in a physical form. The downside is that it takes money up front to create them. If you don’t have time/money to invest, then it’s tough to continue doing this. I do love physical products because it’s something you can touch, hold, and feel. You just need to be able to financially support creating a physical product. These are best done when you have some business capital to invest or you have a lot of time to create the products with. 

2. Digital Products

Most of my stuff is digital products. I love digital products. You don’t have to spend a lot of money up front, you just need to create the content up front and then send it to your client’s inboxes. My courses and my business academy are all digital products. The great thing is that you create it and it’s done. And you can sell it as many times as you want. The value doesn’t decrease the more people you sell it to. Digital course examples- audiobook, ebook, digital downloads, templates, video courses. There are a lot of different things you can do with digital products. If you are just starting out it’s a great option because you don’t have to put a lot of money out upfront. It does take time to create the digital products so you need to be aware of that. 

3. Offering a Service 

I also have a service part of my business where I do coaching. Other examples of a service-based business are- legal services, graphic designers, photographers, web designers, etc. Is there a service you can provide for your audience where you can use your expertise and experience and serve them? This is a great place to start because you don’t need a lot of equipment to get started with this. Many times you already have the equipment you need to provide a service. Selling a service is a great place to start too for new business owners. 

4. Sell Your Influence

You know those people who make a lot of money on Instagram just by showing up? Those people are selling their influence. You might be wondering, “How do they actually make money?” They make money by selling their traffic from their blog/YouTube. They also get money from ads that are shown on those sites. Because they have a following and influence others they can get people to go to those sites to see their content. They get paid from the traffic that goes to those sites and the ads that are shown.

Another way they make money is through affiliate marketing. Affiliates are when you sign up with a company/product, and you get a special custom link. When you share that link to their product, it is tracked by the company. When someone purchases off your link, you get paid a percentage. Affiliate marketing is used a lot on Instagram. If you see instagrammers using Reward Style and sharing outfits, that is an affiliate program. If you purchase something through their Reward Style link, the Influencer will get paid.

The last way that Influencers make money is through sponsored posts. Someone has paid them money to talk about their product. #ad Selling your influence can be a great way to make money. The problem is that you need to have a loyal following/fan base. And you need quite a few followers, not a million, but they need to be engaged and have at least 1,000 followers. It depends on the business and company whether they will work with you. 

Brainstorm How You Can Use These in Your Business

Now as you look at these ways to make money, brainstorm how you can use pieces of each of these ways in your business. You don’t have to use more than one way to make money, you can streamline and just do one thing. But, there’s something to be said for diversifying your products and the ways you make money. 

My kids were talking about how they wanted to make money with their new business, and they came up with a physical product that they wanted to make. The truth is their product idea is really cool and we are working on it. But because it is a physical product, it will be a little while before we can invest in producing that. But right now, they are working on a digital product that they can sell easily on their platform. They aren’t going to be adding any services to their money making plan, but they’ll probably start selling their influence through affiliate accounts. You can easily set up an affiliate account on Amazon and share your recommendations. 

My First Physical Product- My Planner

This has come into play with my business. This happened about 9 months ago when I had the idea of doing a planner. There’s not a lot of people doing a planner for business women and  moms. That’s a special group right there. I want to see my dinner menu plans and my business plans all in one place. And it was amazing to me as I was working on it because I have done digital products for a long time. It was so cool to see what happened when I could send something physical to someone. 

I work with Influencers a lot and my agency and I create their content online. We help Influencers and big businesses with their email marketing, blogging, and Pinterest. We just take it over. Now, that’s something that we do for them but they can’t really talk about it on their platforms. I mean, I guess they could, but it’s different when it’s a physical product. It was interesting to see the difference when I sent them an actual planner that they could talk about. I learned a lot from introducing a physical product into my business. It definitely helped me to reach people I wouldn’t have otherwise reached because influencers were able to talk about my business in a different way.

As you are thinking about the different ways that are best for you to start making money, I would definitely brainstorm all of the things and ways that you could make money and then choose one to focus on. Get that going and get it out there so you can start selling something. 

How I’m Teaching My Kids this Concept

With my kids, the first stage is getting the blog set up and getting the systems in place so when you create content there’s somewhere for it to go. The next step is to create a digital download. They’ve just finished this. They will give it as a freebie so they can start collecting email addresses. This way, when they are ready to launch a physical product, they will already have an email list of people who are ready to purchase what they are offering. This is an important thing. If you don’t have something to sell now, still collect email addresses so that when you are ready you’ll have an audience to sell to .

These are the 4 ways that you can make money. I would recommend using as many ways as you can in as easy a way as you can as you grow your business. You’ll know when it’s time to add more. But be sure to brainstorm what you think you can offer, then choose one to start with.You can and will add more as you grow and you get yours systems down. I hope you go do one of these and make some money. I want you to have a money making plan.

If you need a coach for business, I’m your girl. I have Michelle’s Money Makers just for you. It’s a small group coaching where I walk you through all of the aspects of growing a business online. Check it out here.