Make your first $1000 online (no bullsh*t)

Hey, I’m Ryan. I have made over $150k online, and I want to give you everything you need to make your first $1000. I don’t have anything to sell you, and you won’t need to buy a $997 course if you follow exactly what I lay out here.

Setting Expectations

• Making money online isn’t as easy as gurus make it out to be.
• But if you follow this guidance, give it your best effort, and don’t give up when it gets difficult, you will make money in no time.
• Also, if you can’t focus without jumping around or scrolling down to the comments, I encourage you to take a break. Your attention span is crucial when starting a business, which is a reflection of yourself. If you can’t help yourself by concentrating on this material, how do you expect to help anybody else?
  

Now, the best business model to start as a beginner (in my opinion) is a service-based business, where you provide a service for an already established business in exchange for money.

Services You Can Offer

Here are some services that you can offer (I have experience with the first three):

• Video editing (long + short form)
• Web design
• Managing social media accounts
• Copywriting
• Designing landing pages
• Logo designing

There are plenty more, but these are perfect for beginners.

I recommend focusing on one service to avoid spreading yourself too thin. Start thinking:

• What are you good at?
• What do you enjoy?
• Is it a recurring problem?

What I mean by recurring is that, with video editing, there will always be more videos for you to edit. With copywriting, there are always emails to write. However, for something like web design, once you build the website, that’s it. You can consider a pricing structure; for instance, instead of charging $3000 for a website (which might be steep for some clients), you can charge $200/month indefinitely.

Documenting Your Progress

This step is optional (but I highly recommend it): before you start practicing your skill, create a social media account to document your progress. If YouTube feels intimidating, choose something text-based like X.

First, optimize your profile with a clear profile picture and a bio explaining who you are and what you’re trying to do. Treat it as your journal, posting what you learn, what works, and the mistakes you’ve made. I will explain why this is important a little later.

Practicing Your Skill

Now, it’s time to practice your skill. We don’t want to set up websites or emails just yet because it might turn out you don’t enjoy what you’re doing (trust me, that’s never going to work). If you choose web design, build yourself a website. If you choose video editing, edit a video of yourself. If you’re unsure what to practice, find people at the top of their game and reverse engineer what they’ve done. As a copywriter, you might sign up for successful newsletters, analyze each one you receive, and rewrite using their structure but in a different context.

This is going to be draining and tiring (this is where a lot of people stop), but it’s necessary. If you can’t become valuable to someone, you’re never going to be able to help them. There are plenty of tutorials online that will be helpful in your chosen skill, so take the time to learn and understand what you’re doing.

I found websites in the niche of the businesses I wanted to help (I will get into niches soon), and I reproduced elements of those sites until I was comfortable enough to not rely on tutorials. This way, when I got a client who wanted inspiration from a certain website, I could provide it.

Setting Up Your Business

Once you know what service you want to pursue, it’s time to set yourself up as a business. I don’t mean you need to register yourself officially as a business just yet; that can wait until you’ve earned some money. Depending on where you live, the laws may vary, so double-check. At the very least, register a domain (don’t spend too much time coming up with names; that’s not what’s going to make you money) and create a professional-looking email using that domain. For example, if my domain is milkboxmedia.com, my email would become ryan@milkboxmedia.com.

Many people say not to bother with a detailed email signature. However, I believe in it. When I receive emails from people without signatures, I tend to ignore them. If you have one with links to your social media, people will know you’re legit, and as long as it’s HTML, it’s fine—it’ll help ensure your emails don’t end up in spam as often.

If this setup costs money you don’t have, social media is fine. If you followed the optional step, you already have an account journaling everything you’ve learned up to this point. In this day and age, you can reach anyone on social media.

I would also recommend setting up a basic website. Carrd.io is great for this and is free. I’ve seen people making a killing just using a Google Doc as their website. As you begin to do work, we will add testimonials to this site and display the services or packages you have to offer. We also need a Calendly account for scheduling calls and Stripe for collecting payments. Just make sure to optimize all these profiles with a profile picture and your name.

Getting Started with Work

Okay, so we have our service selected, a social media presence, and a website (we’ve also practiced a bit). Now it’s time to do some work, and I recommend starting with free work. This will introduce you to the world of outreach and should be an easy sell. Most people would say yes to free work (I still wouldn’t get too specific on niche just yet). Start sending emails or DMs to businesses that need your services (I will explain how to find them later).

Keep it casual and be authentic in your message. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.

Sample Outreach Email

If you’re sending an email, you want the subject line to invoke curiosity, such as:

“A question for _____”

“Hey ______,”
I am an aspiring _____ (web designer).
Looking to do some free work to add to my portfolio.
Are you interested?

Because you’ve set up your email signature, they can check you out and see that you’re legit.

Maybe stagger these out a little; you don’t want to send 20 emails asking for free work and then have to say no—not a good look.

The approach for social media would be slightly different: start a dialogue with them about something on their profile, then naturally progress the conversation to asking for free work. The reason for this is that there are many spam filters on social media now, and if you’re sending the same message, you might get shadow banned.

Doing the Work

Once you get someone, even though the work is free, give it your best effort. If you’ve chosen a recurring discipline, there’s a chance they could hire you immediately (which would be awesome).

Either way, you’ll learn more doing this work for someone else than by working on your own. I recommend repeating this cycle until you feel comfortable.

Collecting Testimonials

You should also be collecting testimonials from the people you’re working for. If you’re running a service with trackable stats (like email copywriting), take recordings of these and post them on your social media and website.

Thinking About Your Offer

Now, think about your offer (which is different from your service). The best way to do this is by looking at already successful businesses. Go to their sites and see what packages they offer. For instance, video editors might offer one long-form video a week with four shorts. This way, you’re transitioning from the freelancer side of things to operating an actual business.

Pricing Your Offer

Pricing your offer is also important. On one hand, you want a high enough price so it comes across as a premium service. On the other, be self-aware of your experience level. Like your offer, base your price on what others are charging (as you know that works), but never charge more than you’re comfortable charging.

Getting Paid

Now it’s time to get paid, and we’re going to have a similar approach in terms of reaching out to people. There’s another optional step: using Loom, a software that allows you to record your screen and face simultaneously (there’s a free plan available). The cool thing is you can embed these videos in your emails during outreach. This is why I wanted you to set up an email first; it can get clunky sending videos through DMs.

Analyzing Your Outreach Message

Let’s pull up the outreach message we used to get free work and analyze it a bit:

Subject: “A question for _____”
“Hey ______,”
I am an aspiring _____.
Looking to do some free work to add to my portfolio.
Are you interested?
Regards,

What we have here is a subject that invokes curiosity, a brief and personalized welcome (which reduces the chance of landing in spam), and a direct call to action at the end.

Standing Out

A big part of this outreach game is standing out from the crowd. Many emails suck, and there’s a reason they don’t gain traction. By doing your free work, you should have a niche of the kinds of businesses you want to work for. If you don’t, choose something you know a lot about. For instance, I’ve played tennis my whole life; I understand a lot of the terminology, swing weight, racquet balance, etc. So, copywriting for tennis gear reviewers would be a good option. The more specific you can get, the better.

If you owned a physiotherapy business and received an email saying, “I build websites for businesses,” and another saying, “I build websites for physiotherapists that help them book more appointments,” it’s clear who you’d choose to engage with.

Finding People to Outreach

There are many ways to find people to reach out to. The best method I found is using Google Maps. Start with your local area, pull up their site, and get their contact details. If you’re using social media, do the same with their account handles. Video editors can find emails in the About section of a YouTube channel. Compile a Google Sheet with their name, business name, and email.

Crafting Your Outreach

To send high-quality outreach, I would do a Loom recording navigating their website while saying something like:

“Hi _______, I’m on your website and found a few issues. There’s no security certificate, this page is broken, and it doesn’t scale well on mobile. My name is Ryan; I build websites for physiotherapists. If you want to chat about this, just shoot me an email. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

Of course, point out only what’s wrong or things you can fix—that’s the only way to demonstrate your value. Copywriters might do the same, highlighting errors in copy, too few calls to action, or lack of emotional language. Whatever your skill, find something they’re not doing well that you can fix.

After recording your Loom, write your email, keeping it similar to the one used to get free work.

Example Email

A few things to point out:

• It’s personalized.
• It’s brief but gets the point across.
• The embedded Loom shows their current website.
• There’s a CTA for them to let you know what they think, plus they can visit your social media from the footer to confirm you’re legit.

As you’ll know by now, this process can be exhausting, so make sure you maximize every opportunity from your outreach list by following up.

Follow-Up Strategy

80% of sales are made between the 5th and 12th follow-up. So, every two days, if you don’t get a response, reply to the same email chain with something like “Hey _____, just a reminder this email is for you,” or “Hey _____, bumping this back into your inbox.”

There are three possible outcomes from this:

1. You get told to go away (get used to this one).
2. You’ll get ignored.
3. You’ll get a positive response.

When you receive one of those responses, aim to get them on a call (using Calendly). Avoid discussing pricing over email; instead, suggest a few days and times: “Does 3:30 on Thursday the 24th work for you?” Once you get a yes, use their email to set up the call for them. If you just send the link, chances are they won’t do it.

Preparing for Your Call

It’s normal to feel nervous before your call; it’s a big deal. But remember, you’re not just getting paid; you’re helping someone achieve something they can’t do themselves. You’re helping them more than they’re helping you.

I’m no expert on sales calls, but I’ve closed more clients than I’ve lost. My biggest piece of advice is to be yourself, be human, and have a genuine conversation. Remember that you’re helping them. You should be fully prepared, with your offer and pricing ready to go. After you’ve walked them through what you can do, present the price when the time feels right. But don’t rush this; you may have to have multiple calls to get them sold. Stand firm on your pricing; don’t let them push you around, and deliver your message with confidence—that’s what it’s all about. If you’re not confident, they’ll lose faith.

Closing the Deal

Once you’ve closed them, send an invoice using Stripe. I also use ChatGPT to draft a contract stating the pricing, dates, and the scope of work, then send it over using free software like DocuSign. Once both are done, it’s up to you to carry out the work to the best of your ability and keep them engaged for as long as possible.

Final Tips

Congratulations if you’ve stuck around for this long! It’s clear you want to make this work. I want to share four tips I wish I had known before I started:

#1 – Keep Everything Professional

This is a no-brainer, but it’s what will set you apart from those just in it for the money. Be timely in your replies and use clear, concise language. Still, use your personality—that’s important. Always do what you say you’re going to.

#2 – Continually Build Systems

At the start, focus on getting a feel for how this works. Once you’re comfortable, look for ways to improve things, whether that’s a shared Notion document between you and your client to track progress or software to schedule content posting.

#3 – Track Everything

You can’t improve what you don’t track. Outreach is where you’ll spend most of your time. Understand what’s working and what’s not. For example, track how many outreach messages it takes to get a positive reply, how many positive replies it takes to get on a call, and how many calls it takes to get a client. This way, you can see how many messages you should be sending out each day to reach your goals.

#4 – Understand the Online Business Space

The online business space can be challenging—many people want your money and don’t truly want to help you. Sure, they may be good at what they do (though very few are), and just because one thing works for them doesn’t mean it will work for you. Build systems that suit you; that’s what will separate you from them.

And that’s everything from me! I’ll do another post on how to make money from your social media account through inbound leads (I have experience with that too). I have a free community on X where we help each other with advice and support in building online businesses. If you need help with anything, feel free to DM me on X, and I’ll be more than happy to help.

Thanks for reading!

Talk soon.

Ryan.