When it comes to a self-made cyberhustling boss babe, there are 2 things people will always die to know: how you make your money and how they can make some too.
I am always asked how to make money online. A quick search will prove that there is no shortage of answers to this question throughout the web but I am excited to finally have a place I can give my own personal view of recommendations while setting realistic expectations. If you’re ready to use the internet to cultivate a life of freedom + fortune, keep reading!
I started out making money from ad revenue back in 2006. I had a Myspace resource website where everything was free. ‘Memba the layouts, glitter graphics, quote graphics, etc? If you know, you know: they were all the rage! & when you’re basically giving something awesome away, you can always count on a huge amount of traffic. I still remember the day my site hit 10k unique visitors a day. I don’t have to tell you how the dollar signs appeared in my eyes like on the cartoons haha!
After Myspace died, *moment of silence IRL because it still hurts lol*…. I started running quote websites and sometimes creating freelance designs if I felt like taking other people’s projects. I didn’t do it often because I enjoy creating for myself the most. It’s therapeutic and I can take my time.
What am I into now? I just opened 2 new blogs, this one & Glamber Alert which is my personal lifestyle blog. I also design & sell my branded merch there. One of the Print on Demand(POD) companies that I have used for years to print, package & ship my creations on autopilot is Printful.
With blogs the money making opportunities are endless. SERIOUSLY! You can make money via brand partnerships, affiliate marketing, selling digital products in your area of expertise, physical products like merch, ad publishing, coaching, selling courses and the list goes on and on. I take or plan to take advantage of all of the above.
On my Etsy Shop Le Coco Decor(which is long overdue for a product refresh), I sell physical & printable wall art/posters. My oldest baby iRockstarz is still floating about cyberspace but awaiting a refresh as well. It’s obvi no longer a Myspace resource website but I kept the essence of that by selling custom designs like Snapchat geofilters, mugs, highlight covers & more.
So that’s what I do.. I’m sure that’s not all. & yes I’m a multi-passionate creative, haha! Now that we’ve taken care of the how I make mine, let’s jump into the how you can make some too:
Blogging – get up & running quickly with my free Start a Blog Checklist
Sell a Digital Product
- Ebooks
- Online Courses
- Templates
- Wall Art
- Printables
- Fonts
Sell a Physical Product
- Clothes
- Cosmetics
- Jewelry
- Furniture
- Books
Dropshipping
Print On Demand(POD)
Affiliate Marketing
Ad Revenue
Influencing & Brand Partnerships
Youtube Vlogger
Sell a Service
Coaching
If you’re doubting that you’re qualified to do any of this, you should know that I’m self taught & learned everything from doing my own research. That includes trial and error, reading tutorials and attending YouTube University. There is nothing that I do currently that I learned in an institution of higher learning.
As many of you know, I grew up as a computer-head. My very first elementary school for the first 4 years of my grade school life was titled “..Magnet School for Math, Science, and Technology”. You may say, “hey she’s been doing this in some form or fashion all her life! I could never start making money online without that kind of background.”
That’s not true! Yes, I’ve always had access to computers but what if I told you I didn’t own an actual desktop computer until I got to college? I come from a 2-parent middle classed household but my parents split when I was 10. Up until that age, we had every gaming system that came out: Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, & Sega Genesis.. you name it! I was the kid who not only asked for Kenya dolls, but those little vTech computing/gaming systems as well.
That’s how I got my start as a techie. But any child of divorce knows that once your parents have to pay bills in their own individual households, things change. For a single mother with 3 girls, we still had more than most but we sometimes struggled on my mom’s teaching salary.
Although I didn’t have an actual desktop my closest friend at the time did, so I would spend the night and let the sun catch me up on the computer creating banners on Print Shop Deluxe, downloading music and learning basic html on BlackPlanet. I did the same on my oldest sister’s Gateway when I would go stay with her.
It wasn’t until I graduated high school that my mom finally bought a computer. It was a $300 eMachines(lol) that later died a horrible death but it was right on time for the social media craze that I was able to capitalize on: right place, right time.
BlackPlanet birthed me, MySpace raised me.
It was then that I realized that the online money making possibilities were endless.
In a nutshell I don’t have multiple degrees or even 1. I wasn’t born rich or famous. I always tell people I’m a minority in every sense of the word: black, female & from a small town in the Mississippi Delta.
& guess what? Doing anything online is wayyy easier than it was when I started.
Back then we had to know how to code to build websites. If you paid a designer, the designers could command a lot more because there wasn’t as much competition as it is today. Now there are so many platforms available where you don’t have to know a single line of code/HTML/CSS to have a website & things are more affordable.
Now you don’t have to spend YEARSSS on trial and error, putting the bits and pieces together to learn like I did. You can buy courses with proven, streamlined systems in place and save yourself time, headaches and days of overwhelm because. The dreaded information overload, anyone?
So there is no excuse for you not to get started and I expect to soon see what you bring to this exciting world of immeasurable opportunity!
