How To Make 1000 Dollars Fast If You Need Money Now

This post will teach you how to make 1000 dollars fast if you need money now. The best part is that this method is sustainable and can eventually lead to a profitable online business.

Whenever I get asked for advice on how to start an online business, inevitably the following questions arise.

Steve, how can I make money fast? I need money now.
Steve, how quickly can I expect to make real money with my business?
Steve, what’s the best business model to make money now?

Now your definition of “fast” may be different, but the general consensus among my readers is that making money within 1-3 months is pretty darn quick.

In any case, I recently sat down and gave these questions some thought.

If I were to start all over again from scratch, without an audience, without any connections and without any businesses at all, how would I make $1000 as fast as possible?

Here’s what I came up with.

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How To Make 1000 Dollars Fast – A Video Overview

How To Make Money Fast – The Assumptions For This Tutorial

Here are the assumptions that I’m making for this tutorial…

• You have at least 2 hours a day on the weekdays to work on your business and your weekends are free
• Your goal is to make $1000 as fast as possible
• You own a computer and a webcam
• You have access to the Internet

Please note that what I’m teaching you today is NOT about making $1000 doing random, odd jobs.

For example, if you do a quick search on the Internet for “how to make money fast” or “I need money now”, you’ll see a multitude of articles that preach how you can make a few bucks here and there delivering food for Door Dash, driving for Uber or donating your blood.

You can go on Survey Junkie, take some surveys and make a few dollars immediately but it will suck up your entire day. Heck you can even become a sperm donor for cash.

But the problem with these money making schemes is that they aren’t sustainable in the long run. You aren’t building anything of value and it’s not a good use of your time.

Instead, I’m going to teach you how to make a $1000 fast using a method that can be scaled into a real business that has the potential to replace your day job income.

Here’s how I would proceed step by step.

Step 1: Write Down What You Are Good At

In order to get someone to pay you money, you have to be able to provide value in some shape or form.

As a result, your first step is to figure out what you’re good at.

• How can you provide a benefit that someone is willing to pay for?
• What can you teach someone that will improve their life?

Most people get hung up on this step because they don’t believe that they are an expert in any given topic.

But this is the completely wrong mindset!

As long as you know significantly more than the person you are teaching or providing value to, then your level of knowledge is probably sufficient. You don’t need to be the foremost expert on any given topic.

You just need to be expert enough!

For example, I don’t pretend to know everything about selling online and I’m sure that there are 9 figure ecommerce business owners out there that know more than I do, but my strength is that I’m a good communicator.

I can clearly and effectively convey ecommerce concepts to my students and teach them how to start an online business. Now do I have all of the answers?

Absolutely not! But I possess “more than enough knowledge” to teach others how to quickly scale a business to 7 figures and beyond.

Now for the purposes of this tutorial, I’m going to pretend that I don’t currently run an online business so I won’t teach ecommerce. But I do have some other talents up my sleeve.

Here are a few topics where I personally feel “expert enough” to provide value.

• I can teach basic computer programming
• I can teach a blogging class
• I can teach a fundamentals of WordPress course
• I can teach basic web design
• I can teach Adobe Photoshop basics
• I can teach volleyball fundamentals
• I can teach an SAT prep class
• I can teach people how to start a podcast
• I can teach a course on Street Fighter 2

Looking at this list, am I the defacto expert in any of these topics? Do I have any credentials that justify teaching a course on any of these subjects? Hell no!

But I can say that I know a lot more than the average person and could provide tremendous value on these topics for most people.

Come up with a list of skills that you are good at and write them down no matter how random they are.

For example, one of my friends devours business books in his spare time. So he decided to summarize his favorite books into a “Cliff’s Notes” type publication that he now makes 7 figures selling online.

Another friend who is a professional illustrator decided to teach a drawing class and now makes 6 figures.

Do not discount any talent or random skill that you possess! Write down all of your talents even if you don’t think people will pay for it.

Step 2: Find An Audience For Your Skill

For the purposes of this tutorial, I have chosen to teach others how to use Photoshop as an example of how I would personally make $1000 as quickly as possible.

Once you know the skill that you want to spread to the world, the next step is to figure out what aspect of your skill other people might potentially want to pay for.

Ask yourself, if you were to teach your skill to a specific audience, what benefit would they get out of it?

Using Photoshop as my example, I wrote down the following ideas.

• Learn how to use Photoshop to make high converting images for Amazon sellers
• Learn how to use Photoshop to create Pinterest worthy photos for bloggers
• Learn how to use Photoshop to reach any top influencer
• Learn how to use Photoshop to create product infographics for ecommerce store owners

Once you have created a list of benefits, think about who might be interested in learning from you.

From experience, I know that Amazon requires all main product photos to have a white background. In addition, Amazon sellers often pay 1-2 dollars per photo to have their images processed by a professional.

As a result, Amazon sellers would be a perfect group to market my skill set to! But where can you find out where Amazon sellers hangout?

A simple Facebook search reveals a multitude of Amazon groups you can target.

For example, these communities are likely to be interested in my content

• MyWifeQuitHerJob Community
• Amazon FBA Rockstars
• FBA Today

Make a list of potential groups that you can market to with your knowledge!

Step 3: Sign Up For An Email Provider

Once you have a skill in mind and a group of people you want to target, you should sign up for an email marketing provider.

An email marketing provider allows you to gather contact information about your potential customers and easily send marketing messages to them.

If you are on a tight budget, then signup for MailChimp which is free for up to 2000 contacts. If you don’t like Mailchimp, here’s a list of Mailchimp alternatives.

But if you have a little money to spend, then sign up for either Drip or ConvertKit which are much better solutions.

Editor’s Note: Here’s a review that I wrote about my experiences with the top 4 email marketing providers. Check it out! Drip Vs ConvertKit Vs AWeber Vs MailChimp – Reviewed By A 7 Figure Blogger

Once you’ve signed up, you’ll want to create a quick and dirty landing page that is hosted by your email provider.

Here’s a landing page example that I created in Drip which took me all of 5 minutes.

Make a note of the URL for this landing page because you’ll need it for the next few steps.

Step 4: Create A Video Tutorial Demonstrating An Aspect Of Your Skill

After you have chosen a skill to market and you have an email marketing landing page setup, it’s time to record a video tutorial.

Your tutorial should showcase your skills, establish yourself as an authority, and entice potential customers to sign up for your email list.

Right now, the simplest and cheapest way to share a video is by hosting it on YouTube and/or Facebook.

Using my Photoshop example, I would create a detailed tutorial video on how to place a product on a white background for Amazon sellers and upload it to YouTube.

Now there are many ways to record your video tutorial.

If you are on a tight budget, you can create videos for free using a service called Loom. Alternatively, Windows 10 has built in screen cast software you can use as well!

Simply Google “free screencast software” and you’ll find a number of recording solutions.

Personally, I use a program called Camtasia to record all of my screen cast tutorial videos.

Regardless of what video recording software you use, you’ll want to make sure to mention in your video that people can receive additional free photoshop tutorials by signing up for your email list.

Be sure to link to your email landing page in your You Tube/Facebook video description and display the link at the bottom of your video.

Remember, the primary goal of this step is to impress the heck out of people watching and have them sign up for your free email list for additional info.

Step 5: Start Posting Your Video In Relevant Facebook Groups

Once you have your video and landing page ready to go, the next step is to gather email subscribers!

Armed with a list of relevant Facebook groups, it’s time to post your tutorial to interested parties.

But before you start randomly posting your video, you must obey the following guidelines so you don’t come across as overly promotional.

Prior to posting your content to any Facebook group, it’s important to ingratiate yourself within the community first. Spend a few weeks leaving comments, answering questions and adding value to the group.

Then, once you have established yourself as a helpful member of the community, you can then post your video tutorial to the group.

Here’s a sample of what I might write.

Hey everyone! I really love this group and want to give back to the community. If you’re tired of paying a company to put your products on a white background, I put together a quick and dirty video that will teach you how you can do this yourself for free. Check it out!

Hopefully, people will watch your video and sign up for your email list.

Post this video on all relevant Facebook groups and build your list!

Rinse and repeat this step as many times as it takes to build your following with different tutorials.

Step 6: Create A Course Or Service You Can Charge Money For

If you’ve performed step 5 enough times, you should have a decent sized email list. Remember, it doesn’t take a lot of followers to make $1000.

All you need are a handful of true fans who are willing to pay you money for your knowledge.

It’s also important to note that you should never be afraid of giving too much information away in your tutorials.

After all, the better your material is, the more people will want to learn from you.

In any case, once you have built a small following, it’s time to create a flag ship course that you can sell to your audience.

Using our Photoshop example, I would probably charge around $300 (Your price point will depend on your audience) for a full blown tutorial on how to optimize your images for ecommerce.

This course would include live, step by step instruction and full email support.

Note: You don’t have to have the exact details of your curriculum worked out at this point. If you’ve established yourself as an authority, people will pay just for the privilege of having direct access to you.

Now designing a full blown course can be intimidating.

But it’s important to note that you don’t need to have your course completely done before you launch. In fact, you can develop your course on the fly based on customer input.

This is exactly how I launched my Create A Profitable Online Store Course back in 2011. I literally sold my class with zero content prepared ahead of time!

In any case, I highly recommend the platform Teachable to host your course. They have a 100% free plan that you can sign up for which is great for starting out.

Note: If you do not wish to create a course at this time, you can simply offer your services as a freelancer as well!

Step 7: Give A Webinar And Launch Your Class Or Service

At this point, you should have all of the pieces in place.

• You have an email list of people interested in your material
• You have the framework for your flagship course setup on Teachable or a service you can sell
• You have a small library of tutorials in your tool belt

It’s time to start making money!

The best way to sell your online course is by giving a live webinar.

If giving a live presentation sounds intimidating to you, keep in mind that a live webinar is just a fancy term for a tutorial with an offer.

Just like all of the other videos that you have provided up until this point to gather emails, you are simply creating another tutorial with an offer to buy your course at the end.

Here’s how you should structure your presentation

• Start with an introduction of yourself and your experience – Spend no more than 1-3 minutes on this
• Provide a detailed step by step tutorial and teach like crazy – Do not hold anything back. The better your tutorial, the more likely you will generate sales.
• Present a discounted offer of your course to the attendees that is time sensitive – Create a sense of urgency to entice people to sign up now!
• Provide testimonials of your work – Grab screenshots of comments on the Facebook groups you’ve posted on and use them as social proof

It’s that simple!

If you want to see a sample webinar in action, you can sign up for one of mine the next time I give one.

What’s cool is that setting up a webinar does not require any money. In fact, I currently run monthly webinars using free software online.

Editor’s Note: For information on how to run a webinar using free software, check out my tutorial on How I Used Free Webinar Software To Make $60015 In 1.5 Hours

Here are some average conversion statistics to expect with your webinar based on information I’ve compiled with my colleagues.

• The average attendance rate is about a third of your signups
• The average conversion rate of live attendees is between 5-15% depending on your offer and presentation skills

Let’s do some math!

To make $1000, you need about 4 sales if you charge $300 per course. If you assume a 10% conversion rate that means you need about 120 people on your email list.

Real Life Case Study

Now if you’ve read all of the steps above, you’re probably thinking to yourself…this is a ton of work!

However not only will this strategy make you $1000 in 1-3 months, but there’s a high likelihood that it will lead to a sustainable business that can make you 6 figures or more.

One of the students in my Create A Profitable Online Store Course, Arree Chung, followed the exact strategy outlined in this post and made $4316 with an email list of only 80 people!

He had no website and no audience before he began and today he runs a 6 figure business teaching others how to publish their own picture books.

None of this is rocket science. Everyone has a skill that they can teach someone else and you don’t need to be an expert to add value.

Take some time to compile your knowledge into a cohesive structure and build a following now!

How Would Other Veteran Entrepreneurs Make Money Fast?

On my podcast, I recently asked 3 other seasoned entrepreneurs, Mike Jackness, Greg Mercer and Scott Voelker how they would make 1000 dollars fast from home starting from scratch.

Here’s what they came up with.

Ready To Get Serious About Starting An Online Business?

If you are really considering starting your own online business, then you have to check out my free mini course on How To Create A Niche Online Store In 5 Easy Steps.

In this 6 day mini course, I reveal the steps that my wife and I took to earn 100 thousand dollars in the span of just a year. Best of all, it's free and you'll receive weekly ecommerce tips and strategies!

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Steve Chou is a highly recognized influencer in the ecommerce space and has taught thousands of students how to effectively sell physical products online over at ProfitableOnlineStore.com. 

His blog, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times,  Entrepreneur and MSNBC.  

He's also a contributing author for BigCommerce, Klaviyo, ManyChat, Printful, Privy, CXL, Ecommerce Fuel, GlockApps, Privy, Social Media Examiner, Web Designer Depot, Sumo and other leading business publications.

In addition, he runs a popular ecommerce podcast, My Wife Quit Her Job, which is a top 25 marketing show on all of Apple Podcasts. 

To stay up to date with all of the latest ecommerce trends, Steve runs a 7 figure ecommerce store, BumblebeeLinens.com, with his wife and puts on an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Summit.  

Steve carries both a bachelors and a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Despite majoring in electrical engineering, he spent a good portion of his graduate education studying entrepreneurship and the mechanics of running small businesses.