I was broke for years. The reason?

I never stuck to one way of making money in the digital economy.

I tried out many of them at the same time. But never went too deep.

Today I know better.

Once I decided on ONE way to tap into the digital economy, things started going my way.

I started selling my services on Twitter in 2018. Then I began selling ebooks in 2019. Followed by courses that same year, which became very expensive coaching in 2020.

The transition between them was flawless because I stuck to ONE way for months before moving to the next one.

Today I’ll show you 9 different ways to tap into the digital economy. And, to be honest, I could’ve kept this list within the 3-5 ways, but I don’t want you to follow my path. I want to give you options so you can create your own.

So read along.

But before you do, I highly recommend you choose only one of them and stick to it for 3-6 months. If not, you’ll end up running in circles and wondering why nothing is working.

Good?

So let’s get started.

Make Money Selling Ebooks

Ebooks are my comfort zone.

I have full control of what to say, how to say it, what to include, what not to include, how much I’ll charge for them…

If you like writing, releasing an ebook could be a great potential source of income.

In a nutshell, the process looks like this:

1. Open a Google Document
2. Write 500 words every day
3. Design a cover page on Canva
4. Save the document as a PDF
5. Upload to an e-commerce platform like Gumroad
6. Launch

The purpose of your ebook is to provide an answer to a tiny but painful problem.

Therefore, there’s no need to try to save the world with one ebook.

>>> Learn how to write and publish your ebooks in 30 days

Flipping Items Online

Flipping is slang for arbitrage, buying an asset for a low price and selling it for a profit.

For example, one of my students built a multi-six-figure business buying toys at Walmart and selling them on eBay and Amazon. He literally buys toys at a discount and selling them for a profit.

Flipping is a low-risk business.

You can start by buying things at $5 and selling them for $20-$50.

As time passes by, you buy more expensive stuff and sell it for a profit.

I know people buying Rolex watches at $10,000 apiece and selling them for $30,000.

The process is simple.

Buy low, sell high.

If you’d like to learn more about this, follow Coach Joe Hart and Joseph Oliver on Twitter.

Create And Sell Video Courses

I like to think about video courses as ebooks on steroids.

You outline the content.

You design your slideshow on PowerPoint, Keynote, or Canva.

And you record yourself talking to the camera while sliding through your presentation.

To record your course, you can use apps like:

• Screenflow (paid)
• Loom (free)
• Zoom (free)

Once you record the video, you edit it.

Creating a well-produced video course takes longer than writing an ebook, but people are willing to pay more for them.

Promote And Sell Professional Services

Let’s say you own an SEO agency (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization).

You can sell this service online.

How?

You have multiple avenues.

But I’ll talk about 2 major ones.

1. Cold Email
2. Social Media Marketing.

Cold email is the art of sending emails to “strangers.” But not any kind of strangers.

These strangers are people you’ve researched and believe you can help.

Once you decide to send a cold email to these “strangers,” you can either automate this process with tools like Mailshake and Gmass, or you can send them manually.

This is a great way to conduct your outreach.

On the other hand, you have social media marketing.

This consists of optimizing your social media accounts in a way that people who visit your profile instantly know what you do.

You achieve this by posting content that’s relevant to the type of clients you’re trying to attract.

>>> If you want to start a freelance business, click here

Offer Online Coaching

I remember the first time a friend told me about his online fitness coaching

My jaw dropped when he said,

“I get paid between $3,000–$5,000 for 12-week online coaching. We Zoom once a week and they get unlimited text support from me.”

Think about this: fitness coaching without physical presence.

We’re currently living in a new era of online coaching.

We have fitness coaches, business coaches, holistic medicine coaches, sales coaches taking full advantage of the golden age of online coaching.

Incredible!

If you have a skill and you love to teach, try online coaching.

Create, Record, And Sell Audio

With the rise of video, also came the need for more audio.

And I’m not only talking about music.

Sound effects, soundtracks, and loops are in their heyday.

Podcasters, YouTubers, content creators are using them in their productions to increase the quality of their work.

You can sell your audio on sites like,

• Envato Elements
• Epidemic Sound
• Storyblocks

Make Template

Have you created templates for yourself to save time and streamline your work?

Sell them.

There’s a massive market for design templates, photo filters, Notion templates.

If it saves you time, it can also save time for other people.

Content Creation

If you’re proficient in a skill, you can grow a social media audience by teaching people that skill.

Take for example @blackhatwizardd who grew an audience teaching cold email marketing.

The process is simple.

Jot down your ideas and post them online.

Do this regularly and connect with others, as having an online audience will change your life.

By the way, you don’t even need a massive audience to make money from it.

Take for example @AndrewStrohm.

He started promoting his sales coaching when he had 2,000 followers on Twitter.

He closed over $15,000 in just a couple of weeks.

How?

He proved to his small audience he knew about sales and he launched his coaching offer.

Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing, when done correctly, can generate a lot of passive income.

The thing is a lot of people botch their affiliate marketing effort because they think they can become rich just by promoting their Amazon Affiliate links or someone else’s courses.

While making a good amount of money with affiliate marketing is possible, bear in mind that the best affiliate marketing experts play the long game.

And they do so because Affiliate Marketing consists of driving tons of traffic to someone else’s products.

There are many affiliate programs that pay you not only for the initial sale you make but also for future purchases. These are the best affiliate programs you can get into. Legendary Marketer has a couple of these programs.

Personally, I like the recurring revenue programs.

For example, ConvertKit (the newsletter platform I use) pays me a 30% commission of the recurring payments they get from people who joined using my link.

>>> Get a free copy of my World’s Simplest Affiliate Guide

How to get started in the digital economy?

First, decide on which of the 9 ways you’ll pursue.

Then, make a commitment to stick to it and work on it every day.

And don’t be like some people who quit after 7 days.

Put in the work.

But no matter which way you choose here’s a 3 phase process on how to get started.

Phase 1. Research

First, figure out who are the key players in the industry you choose.

Look at their success.

You’re going to want to emulate their process not their success because you can copy processes but not results.

Make a note of their systems and processes.

Discover the patterns.

Second, travel back a couple of years to find out what they do to get where they are. Work out a way to implement what you discover.

See what they did so you have someone you can aspire to reach.

Third, research the type of clients you want to work with.

Dig deep to find out about their problems and aspirations.

Discover what is it that they actually want. People lie to themselves all the time. It’s up to you to sort the fact from the fiction.

Spend a couple of hours doing this.

And please, don’t use research as a way to procrastinate on taking action.

>>> If you’d like to learn more about Market Research, read this Twitter thread

Phase 2. Plan And Set Goals

Keep your goals small at first.

If you overcomplicate the process you’re going to psyche yourself out.

Visualize the ideal amount of money you want to generate.

And make a plan to get there. Start by mapping out the daily actions you have to take to get to where you want to be.

Let’s say you want to grow an audience on Twitter.

A simple plan could be:

• Tweet 5 times a day
• Connect with 10 influencers every day

Do not overcomplicate this.

Phase 3. Implement

It’s time to take action.

I know you don’t want to do it right now because things aren’t “Perfect”.

Here’s the thing, they never will be perfect. There’s no escaping this. Take a deep breath and dive in.

If you want to tap into the digital economy, be willing to work for it.

I recommend you invest 30 to 60 minutes every day in your new venture.

See how you feel.

And double down on the things that begin to drive positive results and cut anything that doesn’t serve you.

Conclusion

The digital economy is here to stay.

Some people feel like tapping into it is hard.

Au-contraire!

It is simple.

And it has a low cost of entry.

At first, you’ll have to trade your time for income until eventually it flips.

The time for you to get started is NOW!