Niall Doherty's Blog, page 76

$160K in 2 Years Selling Spreadsheet Templates

SimplyOrganizedProEtsy Store $160,000+ estimated revenue Published February 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Check out this Etsy store selling templates for Google Sheets SimplyOrganizedPro

The store has only been around since 2022 and has made 37K+ sales across 24 products.

Per a recent article, the store is estimated to have earned $160,000 so far

One of their best-selling products is this Monthly Budget Spreadsheet, released 14 months ago and with 8.6K sales.

They’re selling that template for $1 to $2.50 a pop, so they’ve likely earned $10k from it, with very little overhead

Some of their other products…

Meal PlannerWeight Loss TrackerWedding PlannerMonthly Budget PlannerHabit Tracker

As you can see, they’re a bit all over the place, creating templates for all kinds of niches.

I’m guessing their product choices are based on market research

Tools like Etsy Hunt and Alura can help with that, both free to try.

Also, I looked around for social media accounts for SimplyOrganizedPro, but couldn’t find anything. So it seems all their sales are coming via Etsy organic searches and recommendations

And their prices are so low that I suspect they get a lot of impulse buyers.

Interesting as well that they mainly do Google Sheets templates.

Some ideas…

Do the same thing but with Microsoft Excel templatesCreate spreadsheet templates for a niche (eg. fitness or finance)

Instead of coming up with more ideas myself, I put what I’d written above into ChatGPT and asked it to give me a few more

A couple it came back with…

Interactive PDF Forms: Creating fillable and interactive PDF forms for various needs, such as business forms, surveys, workout logs, or event planning checklists. These can be particularly useful for small businesses or freelancers.

Social Media Content Templates: Designing customizable templates for social media posts and ads, catering to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. This could include templates for stories, feed posts, and profile banners.

Who knows if those ideas are viable, but they can be good jumping off points for research.

With that in mind, any time you come across a story you like in this newsletter, you could copy/paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to brainstorm some ideas based on the text

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Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.

With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.

Here’s how:

We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.

If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.

Is this kind of business right for you?

Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.

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Revived Her Teenage Passion = $1 Million in 4 Years

Smithe SodineFounder for Smithy Home Couture $1+ million revenue Published February 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Sam Parr recently tweeted…

My mother in law… wanted to sell fancy throw pillows she was making.

I gave her very basic steps. Enough to get started.

Now…

A few years later, she’s done well over $1,000,000 in sales, has a small team, a cool brand, an office, repeat customers, and a thriving business.

The business is Smithy Home Couture by Smithe Sodine, selling via the website and on Etsy

Smithe shared her story in a 2022 interview…

I’m a former elementary school ESL teacher and college instructor.

In 2020, I founded Smithy Home Couture, a handcrafted decorative pillow company. I design and manufacture custom luxury pillows, cushions and bedding. My clients are interior designers, homeowners, and home goods stores.

The origin story…

Working with textiles has been a constant thread in my life… 

At 16, my family immigrated to Florida [from Haiti]. Life as immigrants in the USA was both challenging and exciting. I didn’t speak any English, so I worked hard to graduate high school. I still loved sewing and wanted to pursue a career in the fashion industry.

But life happened and Smithe never got to follow her dream.

Until she became an empty nester and officially launched her business in February 2020

The timing was tough…

Unfortunately in March, New York City went into a covid-19 lockdown.

Launching the business became a real challenge, especially because I expected to sell most of my products in person.

So she found another way…

I shifted gear and started an Etsy store. I took all the fabrics I had in my workroom home and started making pillows in my basement during the Covid-19 quarantine while also making much needed facial masks for friends and family.

Many of those friends and family became my first clients.

Since then…

I have grown steadily over the last two years. I quadrupled my revenues in the second year. I earned more than I ever did as a teacher (teachers are grossly underpaid).

Most importantly, now I have a team of three. My employees are skilled artisans. Together we make, pack, and ship hundreds of pillows and other items every week.

Four years on from that rough start, Smithe’s business has done more than $1 million in sales

Amazing what a person can build in a short amount of time, even with very little experience as an entrepreneur.

Where might you be in a few years if you start now?

First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.

The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.

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Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website

Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.

With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.

Here’s how:

We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.

If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.

Is this kind of business right for you?

Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.

Other ways to make money online

There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.

Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider

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Unsexy Business Sold for $50 Million

This newsletter is all about making money online, but let’s take a quick detour into the offline world

A recent post on Reddit…

What’s an unsexy business not a lot of young people start?

…

Trash collection.

Friends of mine, a husband and wife team, started this in their 20s.

By age 45, it had grown huge and they sold the company to the largest waste management processor in their country and walked away with $50 million in cash.

…

Carpet/sofa cleaning. Met someone who is fully booked every single day.

These stories are a good reminder that there are lots of business opportunities in the offline world.

And there may even be more opportunities offline since so many people prefer to stay behind their screens nowadays

…

One of the largest deficits in the coming years are industry tradesmen like plumbing, electrical, hvac, etc. Most millennials were told they had to go to college. Gen Z’ers followed suit. Now nearly any tradesman worth a shit can name their price in most areas.

An article from 2020 tells a similar story

The number of unfilled HVAC technician jobs is about 80,000 or 39% of technicians currently employed. On top of that, we’re suffering a net technician loss of about 8% or 20,000 per year.

(HVAC technician = someone who installs and repairs air conditioning systems.)

from that Reddit thread…

Most people my age don’t want to get their hands dirty anymore. I think it has to do with the social image we now see on social media.

If someone focuses on building a business that requires physical labor or work that requires human interaction together with automated digital processes managed by AI, I believe it could be extremely successful.

Reminds me of that guy who wrote software to optimize his sister’s cookie delivery business and sold $200,000 in one month

So yeah, don’t get too caught up looking to make money online.

There are plenty of good business opportunities offline, usually with less competition

$45,000 in 2.5 Years as an Unqualified Language Teacher

Zee ChewiTalki Community Tutor $40 per hour Published February 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

In a recent video, Zee Chew talks about how much money she’s earned as a community tutor on iTalki …

iTalki is a language learning marketplace, where learners can hire professional teachers or community tutors.

As a community tutor, like Zee, you don’t need to have any formal teaching qualifications

Check out Zee’s profile on iTalki and you can see that she teaches Chinese (Mandarin) and English. The vast majority of her students seem to be Mandarin speakers who want to learn English

Zee charges about $20 per 30-minute lesson.

She says in the video…

In total, I made about $45,000 [in 2.5 years] after the 15% commission cut, which, in my opinion, is still quite a decent amount of money…

Thanks to the consistent extra cash coming in, I was able to live a digital nomad lifestyle and travel across Europe back in 2022.

How she got started back in 2021…

I was feeling miserable and lost after investing six months in a [job] interview which I ultimately failed. It took me six months just to fail that interview.

At that time, I just wanted to do something productive, and I knew that I had to make money. I couldn’t just stay at home doing nothing.

So…

I started googling how to make money online, and that’s when I stumbled upon iTalki and Preply [another language learning marketplace]….

After assessing my own skill sets and checking the requirements from the platforms, I signed up immediately and began my tutoring journey as an online figure without any experience.

If you’re eager to try iTalki yourself, Zee offers some tips in the video

However, she doesn’t mention anything about pricing, and I suspect a big part in her success was starting out with low prices and raising them over time as she gained positive reviews on the platform.

She does say that her total earnings (before fees) = $50,000 after 2500 hours of tutoring, which works out to an average of $20/hour.

So she probably started out charging closer to $10/hour on iTalki.

Nowadays she’s effectively charging $40/hour, but it clearly took a lot of time and effort for her to get to that level

Use the search function on iTalki to get a sense of how much different community tutors charge. You can filter by language, type of teacher, time of day, etc.

First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.

The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.

If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 21,369 legendary subscribers.

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Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website

Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.

With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.

Here’s how:

We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.

If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.

Is this kind of business right for you?

Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.

Other ways to make money online

There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.

Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider

Every Tuesday and Friday we email 21,369 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.

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Read This If You’re Struggling To Get Started

A recent post on Reddit…

For those who ask “How do I get started?” Do something… Do anything.

Excerpts

I have a friend who’s been at a job that he dislikes for a while. He’s planned to go out on his own and has talked about it often.

Last fall the plan was to be out of there by December. It’s now the end of January and he’s basically done nothing to make that plan a reality…

Every week goes by where I suggest to him that he do something to take a step towards independence and having his own business.

And with every week he’s got some excuse why he couldn’t get to it.

Excuses like…

He doesn’t want to put any personal info onlineHe hasn’t had timeHe doesn’t think a particular idea will work

It’s very easy to get caught up in that kind of excuse-making, especially the last one.

But here’s the thing: most of your ideas will fail.

And that’s okay

I earn a good living online nowadays, but most of my ideas have failed.

Over the years I’ve tried…

Writing and selling ebooks (never earned much from that) Building crappy niche sites (made $0)Making coding tutorials for YouTube (never monetized)Starting a language learning YouTube channel (never monetized)Selling web design services to Irish pubs (no takers)Offering a WordPress setup service (earned a few $100)Building a SaaS (had lots of discovery calls but never launched anything)Creating and selling my own course (did okay but the ROI wasn’t great)Coaching (made some money but didn’t enjoy it)

But through each of those “failures” I gained experience… experience which led me to eventually achieve success

Back to that Reddit post…

If you’re the type of person who’s had an idea for a business, but never quite got around to it, yet always talks about it – Let today be the day.

Do something.

Rest assured, that something probably won’t work.

But it will 100% move you closer to success

The 20-Email Funnel They Used to Sell $3 Million in Courses

Nicolas ColeCo-founder of Ship 30 For 30 $3 Million estimated revenue Published February 12, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Ship 30 for 30 is a writing cohort course run by Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush.

In a recent tweet, Nicolas writes…

After 19 cohorts of Ship 30, over 10,000 students enrolled, and millions of dollars generated in revenue, we’ve learned something about email marketing.

Looks like the course was initially priced at $199-$249 back in 2021. and has since increased to $750.

If we take the average price as $300, at 10K students that = $3 million in revenue.

Nicolas shared in that tweet “how many emails it takes for someone to buy” the course…

On average, it’s nearly 20 emails!

Sometimes more.

This is something we REALLY didn’t understand when we first launched Ship 30 for 30, and we fell into the same trap a lot of creators do:

“If I send too many emails, people are going to see it as spammy. They’ll unsubscribe. They’ll never buy anything from me!”

He goes on to break down their “20-Email Strategy”…

If you are about to launch a digital product, a cohort-based course, a book, a consulting or group coaching offer…

Or, if you have a product/service for sale and want to know how to increase sales…

Here’s a 2-part strategy anyone can implement.

– The first part is 100% education.
– And the second part is 100% sales.

The first part = 10 emails aimed to educate…

– Show the customer you are the right person to help them.
– Remind them you have a product/service for sale.

These emails should be 99% free value + 1% “Oh, by the way, you can sign up here” CTA at the end.

Except for the very first email—which sets the frame for what your offer is.

The second part = 10 emails aimed to sell…

The second part of this 20-email sequence are emails intended to do the opposite of the first 10 emails.

You’ve given them a TON of free value. So here, you SHOULD hard pitch people on your list.

And the goal should be:

– Buy
– Or Unsubscribe

You do not want people sitting on your list doing nothing.

Check out the tweet for a breakdown of each email in the sequence. 

Last words from Nicolas…

That’s a lot of emails!

But that’s the point. (One of our favorite quotes, I think Hormozi said it, is “People need to be reminded more than they need to be told.”)

If you aren’t willing to go through the effort to build a 20-email sequence educating and empowering customers to take action with you, then don’t be surprised when your sales are what they are.

However, it’s worth noting that they were using a 6-email sequence before, and that was apparently good enough to earn them 7 figures.

So don’t feel like you need to create a 20-email funnel right out of the gate. 

Start simple and evolve over time.

First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.

The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.

If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 21,337 legendary subscribers.

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See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers


Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website

Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.

With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.

Here’s how:

We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.

If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.

Is this kind of business right for you?

Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.

Other ways to make money online

There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.

Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider

Every Tuesday and Friday we email 21,337 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.

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Google Shutting Down 25 Million Websites = Business Opportunity

Fery Kaszoni tweets…

Google is shutting down tens of millions of small business sites from March.

All subdomains hosted on their . business . site domain will be removed next month.

If you’re not aware, this is Google’s free service used by over 25M sites (from search results).

Official announcement about the shutdown.

Fery lays down a “multimillion dollar idea,” based on the assumption that these businesses will be eager for a new website solution…

Use scrapers to extract all [.business.site] websites from Google search results…

Now use new scraper rules to visit each website, and create a perfect clone of the current website on your server…

Now buy a domain name such as business . inc or something generic…

Rent this clone under a subdomain for $5 a month…

He adds…

If you sell this to 20K website owners, you’ll make $100,000 per month just by hosting their website.

Remember, there will be 20 million desperate website owners next month with their website shut down, who will need a solution.

Fery’s idea is ambitious

But you could also do something on a much smaller scale here and earn good money.

For example, you could find .business.site websites in an industry you’re familiar with and reach out to those site owners

Start by putting this in Google search…

site:*.business.site [industry or keyword]

I see more than 30,000 results when I use this search…

site:*.business.site carpentry

Try that for a niche or industry you’re interested in, then check out the sites and find their contact info. 

Next: reach out and ask them if they need help moving their site elsewhere. If yes, you could build it on a service like Carrd, which costs only ~$50/year to host 25 sites

Charge nothing for the setup but then a few $$ per month/year for hosting and maintenance.

With that, you could have a thriving business on your hands

Another idea here: scrape the contact info for these sites and sell access to local agencies or web developers.

Let me know if you give any of those ideas a try. I’d love to hear how it turns out.

Pain & Numbness Led Her to a $30K/Month Business

Addison LaBonteBlogger $30,000 estimated peak monthly revenue Published February 12, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Addison LaBonte runs the food blog Organically Addison, where she shares “easy healthy gluten-free and paleo recipes”

Addison started the site in 2018, but earned very little money from it the first few years.

She revealed in an interview a few months back…

In March 2021, my website made about $300.

By December 2021, it made over $7K just from advertisements.

Since then, it has continued to climb into the mid 5 figures per month.

Let’s be conservative and assume “mid 5 figures per month” = $30,000 per month

How Addison got started…

In 2016, I was diagnosed with Compartment Syndrome. Essentially, I was experiencing debilitating pain and numbness while running…

Thankfully, my aunt is a fellow marathon runner and gluten free eater. She recommended becoming gluten free to feel better.

I quit cold turkey. Within 7 days, my life was changed.

I had no more pain or numbness. I didn’t get weekly headaches or daily brain fog. I knew right then and there that I wanted to share my story.

But…

I knew nothing about websites, coding, SEO, or how to monetize an online business. It’s been incredibly rewarding to learn everything.

Addison was slow to monetize…

I didn’t start making money from my website until late 2020, early 2021.

Leading up to this, I had posted every single day on Instagram and Facebook to build an audience.

Finally…

My website exploded in 2020 when everyone was home cooking and looking for wholesome options. At the same time, I went from working 40 hours in finance to working from home.

That’s when she decided to treat her website like a business rather than a hobby

Then…

I listened to a podcast about buying websites. I was skeptical but intrigued. In 2023 thus far, I have purchased 3 websites. This has forced me to outsource and build a team.

Today, I have a virtual assistant, two food photographers, and a content writer.

Sounds like that investment helped her get to $30,000 per month.

But then came a setback…

In September 2023, three of my sites [out of 4] were negatively impacted by the Google Helpful Content Update (HCU).

Overnight, two of my sites lost 50% of organic traffic and one of my sites lost 30%.

It is very unsettling to lose that much revenue overnight. Seeing my revenue and page views go down so dramatically was sickening.

It reminded me that I need to diversify my income streams and not solely rely on traffic from Google.

So I’m guessing her revenue dropped to around $15,000 per month after that.

Which is still awesome, and I expect her traffic and revenue will grow again given time

A good takeaway from Addison’s story: you don’t need to be super-knowledgeable starting out – you can pick up the necessary skills and experience as you go.

She says…

Starting a blog has taught me many, many things that I never thought I’d be doing.

Food photography is one of them! I had never picked up a DSLR camera before 2020, but I taught myself how to use one. One of my favorite parts about being a business owner is the constant and continuous learning.

First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.

The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.

If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 21,337 legendary subscribers.

Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHP

We'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.

See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers


Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website

Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.

With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.

Here’s how:

We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.

If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.

Is this kind of business right for you?

Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.

Other ways to make money online

There are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.

Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider

Every Tuesday and Friday we email 21,337 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.

HP

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He’s Earned $2+ Million From Selling Blogs

Marc AndreBlogger $2+ Million from selling blogs Published February 8, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Marc Andre is the founder of FlipMySite, who started his first blog as a side project in 2007.

He’s since started and sold several blogs

In a recent interview, he reveals…

In total, I’ve had six different six-figure exits, totaling over $2 million.

In 2023 alone, I sold three blogs for a combined total of about $800,000.

His big “aha” moment happened back in 2008-09…

a blogger I knew sold his blog on Flippa for $40k and it really opened my eyes. Ever since then, I’ve built my websites and blogs with the intention of selling them at some point.

Marc eventually sold the blog he’d started in 2007…

I would end up selling it in 2013 for $500,000. By the time I sold it, it was making about $25,000 per month in profit.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t reveal what the site was, though this article in Forbes backs up his story

And Marc reveals here that he started three photography websites from 2012-15, and had sold them all by 2018 for ~$700,000

His unusual advice for starting a blog…

a lot of people say you should focus on low-competition niches. But all of my successful blogs and websites have been in popular, crowded niches…

The monetization possibilities in popular niches are usually a lot more significant than what you’ll find in lower-competition niches.

I don’t attempt to become an industry leader. I just try to take a small part of a bigger pie.

Marc’s favorite monetization method is selling digital products, for several reasons

– Your income is much less dependent on traffic levels.
– Your products can generate revenue for years.
– Growing and scaling is easier and more lucrative.
– There are lots of opportunities for collaboration.
– You don’t need a huge audience or high traffic to make good money.
– More of the details are in your control (compared to affiliate marketing or monetizing with ads).

He started off monetizing with display ads but…

I hated the fact that I was constantly chasing traffic. Creating and selling products allowed me to make money without being so dependent on traffic.

Last words from Marc…

I don’t think I’m an outlier. Blogs are very viable options for indie hackers [solo operators].

But it does take a lot of work. Most people want quick results and it usually doesn’t happen that way.

Think about Marc’s first blog: started in 2007 and he got it to $25K/month in profit before selling in 2013.

That’s 6 years of constant effort, or 312 weeks. And he probably earned very little from that blog his first 2 years

That’s the kind of dedication and discipline it takes to make millions online.

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Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website

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Here’s how:

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Helping Local Businesses = $800K Per Year

Daniel ThompsonCo-founder of Saltwater Digital $800,000 annual revenue Published February 8, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Daniel Thompson is a co-founder of Vancouver-based Saltwater Digital

They provide “digital marketing solutions for small businesses” … so services like web design, SEO, paid ads, etc.

In a recent interview, Daniel reveals…

We generated $800,000 in revenue and ~$150,000 in net profit in 2023.

Might not seem like a ton of profit, but that’s likely after paying the salaries of the 2 founders, plus they have several employees and contractors.

Daniel again…

My partner and I got started in 2011 building niche sites. We would rank websites, put affiliate links on them, and earn a commission.

But…

In 2014, we made the switch to start serving local businesses.

The main reason, it was a lot easier to rank a local business than it was for lucrative affiliate terms.

I’m sure that still holds true for most places. Might be worth doing some keyword research for your local area, see what you could rank for

Daniel reckons local businesses are always looking for help…

Most businesses need some form of digital marketing. Trying to find solid providers at a reasonable cost is difficult. Bigger agencies tend to be very expensive and working with freelancers can be a coin flip in terms of quality.

How Saltwater got their first client…

In 2013, we signed up our first client who was a referral from a friend. I think we charged him $400/month, and I spent a ton of time working on his campaign. And we grew from there.

He adds…

The beautiful thing about service businesses is they are incredibly simple to launch. There are virtually no upfront costs outside of our own time.

Plenty of services you could try this with

Web designSEOPaid adsGoogle My Business listingSocial media managementEmail marketing / Newsletter serviceEtc.

Last words from Daniel…

Starting a side gig has never been easier. There are so many good ways to make money and learn a new skill or two. And once you start you never know where it’s going to take you. I never imagined that learning SEO would lead me down the path I’m currently on.

My first site sucked, and whatever you do at first also won’t be very good. But you just need to start and start practicing.

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Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.

With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.

Here’s how:

We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.

If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.

Is this kind of business right for you?

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