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Greet from the deep,

The reason why most people fail to earn their first dollar on the internet is that they try to sell a thing they’ve never done to a person that doesn’t know them.

And I don’t blame them - nobody showed them a better way.

Until today.

In this letter, I’ll show you how to make your first $1 (and $1,000, and ($10,000) on the internet.

Hint: it’s NOT about re-selling McDonalds Szechuan Sauce

Let’s d-d-d-d-dive in! 🤿

Your 3-Step Roadmap to Earning Your First $1 on The Internet

Your roadmap from $0 to $1, $1.000, and even $10.000 is simple.

In this email, I’ll talk specifically about how you can reach this income level with a high-value skill (more on that later) - because let’s face it:

Earning $15 one-time from re-selling an ebook isn’t a sustainable income.

Here’s the plan:

1) Learn a Skill

First, you need to identify a high-value service you can offer, like:

• Copywriting

• Web Design

• Video Editing

• No-code Automation

• Facebook Ads

• Search Engine Optimization

• McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce Manufacturer

My 2 cents on this is that you should aim to find a skill that you actually enjoy.

Speed this up with AI:  Read the previous edition for a ChatGPT prompt on finding your existing areas of expertise

Then, become decent at the skill of your choice.

How to do this:

1) Consume educational content on Youtube

(just search “How to [INSERT SKILL OF YOUR CHOICE]” and binge-watch)

But only watching Youtube videos won’t get you anywhere.

You want to watch just enough to have a basic understanding of the skill.

Because the real learning curve comes with the next activitiy:

2) Practice on yourself

And that second point…

That second point is CRUCIAL.

Because…

There’s no easier way to build credibility and to sell a service than having done it for yourself.

Want to sell email sequence copywriting?

Write one for yourself.

Want to sell LinkedIn ghostwriting?

Grow your own account to 3,000 people.

Once you have practiced the skill on yourself and think you’re decent at it, you can look for your first clients:

2) Do Free Consulting

How to NOT get your first client:

Now, here’s what most people do when they want to get their first client:

They find a prospect and then message them something like:

“Hey,

I love what you are doing. Do you need a website designer/copywriter/marketer?

Here are my packages:”

That’s just won’t work.

First of all…

…if you are really good at what you’re doing, you don’t ever need to ask a prospect if they need your service.

Because people who know what they’re doing know what problems they solve and who they can help.

Secondly, the prospect will think you are lazy as fuck, and that you’re sending cold outreaches to as many people as possible.

(like most people do).

Lastly, the prospect has no idea if they need your service, so they won’t answer.

Why?

Because you didn’t explain to them why they need your offer.

So what should you do instead?

Offer free consulting.

You set yourself apart from 99.9% of other DMs if you don’t ask the prospect for something, but you give them something valuable.

Your DM should do 1 of 3 things:

Speed this up with AI: Read the previous edition about selling in the DMs and to get an AI sales coach)

Now, here’s the catch:

You can’t do free consulting if you don’t research the prospect beforehand.

That’s why so few people are doing it.

It takes time to:

• Visit a prospect’s website

• Look at their profile

• Create a solution for them

But because it takes time, few people are willing to do it, which means it works really well when you do it.

So, to recap:

1) Find a prospect

2) Research them

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to craft your outreach message…

How to Craft Your Free Consulting Outreach Message

Each outreach message should contain 4 things:

For example, if you were offering Search Engine Optimization, you could write a DM that says:

“Hey Ole,

I just poked around your website (which has some great blog content about X by the way) and I was wondering why you don’t include a bulleted overview in the beginning of your blog articles?

It would be a simple way to increase website visitors by 10-30% because search engines prefer articles with such bullet points.

If you could let me know your website team member’s email, I’d happily help them fix this (of course, free of charge).”

Why wouldn’t your prospect reply to this email?

You’re offering them free value, showing your expertise, and making it easy to accept your offer.

Now, you might say:

“That’s cool, Ole, but how does this help me earn my first $1?”

If you do free consulting for 50 prospects, I guarantee you that at least 10 of them will ask you what you offer.

And that’s when you tell them what you do and how it benefits them…

…and suggest that you should get on a call.

3) Get Your First Client

On the call, you do even more free consulting for the client, and point out problems and solutions for them.

Important: never, EVER, point out a problem without a solution - you want to be known as a problem solver, not creator.

Eventually, the prospect will ask you:

“What do you offer?”

or

“What would it cost for me to hire you and solve all these problems for me?”

Boom. They want to hire you.

Now, this is where you need to be honest with yourself:

How good are you at this skill?

If you’re a 5/10, offer the client to solve the problem for free (I recommend this to most people).

If you’re better than that, you can take some money, but I’d still do at a discount because it’s your first time doing this skill for somebody else.

“Ole, I still haven’t earned my first $1 yet…”

Hang on for 1 more minute.

Because as you get better and better at this service, and you start to get your clients results, your outreach/free consulting becomes easier and easier.

Eventually, you’ll be so good that you can tell your free client:

“I have 3 prospects who want to pay me $500 per month to do SEO for them - I’d love to continue work with you, can you match that price?”

And that’s how you earn your first $1 eventually.

How to earn your first $1,000 and $10,000 on the internet

The cool thing about this approach is that you can do it over and over again.

Over time, you get better at the skill, so you deliver better results, and can charge higher rates - and that’s all it takes to get to $10,000 / month.

Speed this up with AI: Use the Arnold Automator on Anabolics to streamline your business processes and increase your margins

Cheat Code: Document Your Journey

The one thing I didn’t tell you yet is that you can speed up this process 2-10x if you build an audience online around the service you offer.

Share what you’re learning and what results you’re getting.

This increase your free consulting reply rates and helps you build trust with prospects faster than a horny cheetah.

It’s easy:

More content = more eyeballs on your work.
More eyeballs on your work = more clients for you

Wrap up

Today, you learned how to earn your first $1 on the internet.

This might be the longest newsletter I’ve ever written, so I hope it was valuable to you - please let me know in the poll further down!

This NL was a little less focused on AI but many people voted to learn more about today’s topic.

While you are reading this, I’m most likely chilling inside a weird cave in Ibiza.

Keep diving,

Ole