Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:52 — 23.0MB)
To make money with no money, teach a skill you already have to a specific audience, build a small email list with free video tutorials, and sell a course or service to that list by webinar. At $300 per sale, four sales gets you to $1,000, which takes roughly 120 email subscribers at a 10% conversion rate.
In this solo episode I walk through exactly how I would do it if I started over today with no audience, no connections, and no existing business. The only assumptions are two hours a day on weekdays, free weekends, a computer with a webcam, and internet access.
Here is the 6-step framework: write down what you are good at, find an audience for that skill, set up an email provider and landing page, record a free video tutorial, post it in relevant Facebook groups, then create your offer and launch it on a live webinar.
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Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- You need about 120 email subscribers to make $1,000 at a $300 price point and a 10% conversion rate.
- Expert enough beats expert. Knowing significantly more than the person you teach is sufficient.
- Skip the odd-job route. DoorDash and survey sites consume your day and build nothing you own.
- Sell the course before you build it. I launched Create A Profitable Online Store in 2011 with zero content prepared.
- Ingratiate before you post. Spend a couple of weeks adding value in a Facebook group first.
- Webinar math: roughly a third of signups attend, and 5% to 15% of attendees buy.
- My student Arree Chung made $4,300 from an 80-person list with no website and no prior audience.
- None of my businesses required more than $1,000 to start. What you lack in money you make up in hustle.
Why odd jobs are the wrong way to make money fast
Searching for how to make money fast surfaces articles about delivering for DoorDash, driving for Uber, donating blood, or taking surveys on sites like Survey Junkie.
Those methods share a problem. They consume an entire day, and at the end of it you own nothing that compounds.
The approach in this episode makes $1,000 through a method that scales into a real business capable of replacing your day job income.
Step 1: Write down what you are good at
Getting someone to pay you requires providing value, so the first step is identifying the skill you can deliver it with.
Most people stall here because they do not consider themselves an expert in anything. That is the wrong bar.
As long as you know significantly more than the person you are teaching, your knowledge is sufficient. You do not need to be the foremost authority, only expert enough.
My own case makes the point. There are nine and ten figure ecommerce owners who know more than I do, and my strength is that I communicate the concepts clearly.
Setting my ecommerce business aside, here is what I could teach today: basic computer programming, a blogging class, WordPress fundamentals, basic web design, Photoshop basics, volleyball fundamentals, SAT prep, how to start a podcast, and a course on Street Fighter 2.
I hold no credentials in any of them. I do know considerably more than the average person about each.
Why random skills are worth writing down
Do not discount a talent because it seems too niche or too odd.
One friend of mine devours business books in his spare time. We turned his favorites into a Cliff’s Notes style publication that now sells seven figures online.
Another friend is a professional illustrator who decided to teach a drawing class. That class now generates six figures.
Write down every skill you have, including the ones you assume nobody would pay for.
Step 2: Find an audience for your skill
Once you know your skill, identify which specific aspect of it people will pay for and who those people are.
Using Photoshop as my working example, the benefit list looks like this: high-converting images for Amazon sellers, Pinterest-worthy photos for bloggers, outreach graphics for contacting top influencers, and product infographics for ecommerce store owners.
Amazon sellers stand out from that list for a concrete reason. Amazon requires main product photos to have a white background, and sellers routinely pay $1 to $2 per photo to have images processed professionally.
Finding them is a Facebook search away. Groups like the My Wife Quit Her Job community, Amazon FBA Rockstars, and FBA Today are all full of exactly that audience.
Make a list of the groups you could reasonably serve with your knowledge.
Step 3: Sign up for an email marketing provider
An email provider is what lets you capture contact information and message potential customers directly.
On a tight budget, MailChimp is free up to 2,000 contacts. With a little more to spend, Drip or ConvertKit are considerably better tools.
Then create a quick landing page hosted by that provider. The example I built in Drip took about five minutes.
Save that landing page URL. Every following step points to it.
Step 4: Record a free video tutorial that showcases your skill
Your tutorial has three jobs: demonstrate the skill, establish you as an authority, and get viewers onto your email list.
For the Photoshop example, I would record a detailed walkthrough of placing a product on a white background for Amazon sellers and upload it to YouTube.
Recording it costs nothing if you want it to. Loom is free, Windows 10 ships with built-in screencast software, and a search for free screencast software turns up more options. I personally use Camtasia.
Mention in the video that viewers can get additional free tutorials by joining your email list. Put the landing page link in the video description and display it on screen near the end.
The goal of this step is to impress people enough that signing up feels obvious.
Step 5: Post your tutorial in relevant Facebook groups
Establish yourself in a group before you post anything of your own.
Spend a couple of weeks leaving comments, answering questions, and adding value without asking for anything in return. Posting a link on day one reads as promotional and gets treated that way.
Once you are a recognized helpful member, post the tutorial. Here is roughly what I would write:
Hey everyone, I really love this group and I want to give back to the community. If you’re tired of paying a company to put your products on a white background, I just put together this quick and dirty video that will teach you how to do this yourself for free. Check it out.
Repeat across every relevant group, then rinse and repeat with new tutorials until the list is built.
Step 6: Create the course or service you will charge for
After enough rounds of step 5 you will have a modest email list, and a modest list is genuinely all this requires.
A handful of true fans willing to pay for your knowledge is enough to clear $1,000.
For the Photoshop example I would charge around $300 for a full tutorial on optimizing images for ecommerce, including live step-by-step instruction and email support. Your price depends on your audience.
Give away as much as you can in the free tutorials. Better free material makes more people want to learn from you, and it never cannibalizes the paid offer.
Why you should sell your course before you build it
Designing a full course is intimidating, and finishing one before launch is unnecessary.
You can develop the curriculum on the fly based on customer input. That is exactly how I launched Create A Profitable Online Store back in 2011, with zero content prepared ahead of time.
If you have established yourself as an authority, people will pay for direct access to you before the curriculum exists.
For hosting, Teachable has a completely free plan that works well for starting out. If you would rather skip course creation entirely, offer the same skill as a freelance service instead.
How to run the webinar that launches your offer
A live webinar is the best way to sell the course or service, and it is just a tutorial with an offer attached.
The structure is straightforward. Introduce yourself and your experience in one to three minutes, deliver a detailed step-by-step tutorial and hold nothing back, present a time-sensitive discounted offer, then close with testimonials.
For social proof, screenshot the appreciative comments from the Facebook groups where you posted your tutorials.
The tooling is free. I run monthly webinars using YouTube Live.
The webinar math: how many subscribers you actually need
Roughly a third of your registrants will attend live, and 5% to 15% of live attendees will buy depending on your offer and delivery.
Run the numbers at a $300 price. Four sales gets you to $1,200, which clears the $1,000 goal.
At a 10% conversion rate, four sales means about 40 live attendees, which means roughly 120 people on your email list.
That is a small list by any standard, and it is reachable within one to three months at two hours a day.
Case study: how Arree Chung made $4,300 from an 80-person list
Arree Chung, a student in my Create A Profitable Online Store course, followed this exact sequence and made $4,300 from an email list of 80 people.
He started with no website and no audience.
Today he runs a six figure business teaching others how to publish their own picture books.
The pattern holds beyond his case. Everyone has a skill worth teaching, and the barrier is almost never expertise.
Frequently asked questions
How much money do you need to start an online business?
None of the businesses I have started required more than $1,000. When you have no capital, you compensate with hustle and time rather than spending.
How many email subscribers do you need to make $1,000?
About 120. At a $300 price point with a 10% webinar conversion rate and a one-third attendance rate, roughly 120 subscribers produces the four sales you need.
Do you need to be an expert to teach a course?
No. You need to know significantly more than the person you are teaching. Being expert enough is the actual bar, and credentials are not required.
Should you finish your course before selling it?
No. Sell first and build the curriculum based on customer input. I launched Create A Profitable Online Store in 2011 with zero content prepared ahead of time.
How do you promote in Facebook groups without getting banned?
Spend a couple of weeks commenting, answering questions, and adding value before posting anything of your own. Then frame the post as giving back to the community rather than as promotion.
What is the cheapest way to record a video tutorial?
Loom is free, and Windows 10 includes built-in screencast software. Paid options like Camtasia are worth it later, though nothing about step 4 requires spending money.
What email provider should you use with no budget?
MailChimp is free up to 2,000 contacts. If you can spend a little, ConvertKit or Drip are significantly better tools for this workflow.
How long does it take to make your first $1,000 this way?
One to three months at two hours a day on weekdays with free weekends. The bulk of that time goes into building the list, since the offer itself can be sold before it is built.
