Capable serial entrepreneur looking for feedback and thoughts on creating online income from scratch in 2024

[richard12511]

First, completely new member, so thank you for taking the time to read my post. I’m going to be very concise for the sake of your time. I am what you’d probably call a serial entrepreneur. I’ve had various ventures for the past 20 years. None have been online only focused, but as a boot strapped for the most part, I have learned many skills that I could utilize or expand on. I have dabbled in SEO, wel actually I was hired for a while as SEO strategist for a large accounting firm. Realized quickly that they didn’t need nor were prepared for paying someone what they paid me as just an in-house SEO person. This is also 7 years ago. I’m intermediate when it comes to web design front and back end. I have skills with some e-commerce, SQL, podcasting, etc. The list goes on. Jack of all trades type of deal.

Sadly, this has been a horrible past year for me. I’ve just finalized a divorce and in the midst, loss my income stream entirely. So in a sense, I’m starting over and I have a 13 year old daughter. I’m be somewhat followed a few trends such as dropshipping and some of the newer trends such as Audible and various uses of AI. Also, the job market is a nightmare right now. That’s a whole other topic.

My most recent dive into general digital marketing did not go well utilizing the client acquisition strategy that I was taught my a business friend. I’m based in Jackson, MS and he’s in Atlanta, GA. His strategy was based on doing quick 10 minute general website audit videos for a local niche. Email them using Loom, as a way to garner clients. He suggested I go with home service professionals and keep it local. Especially in the South, these guys like if you’re in their backyard. Well, what seemed yo be a gold mine for him, led to 1 out of 50 of the videos sent through emails/FB Messages actually being watched. I do think my local demo is part of that problem and maybe I chose the wrong industry.

SO, I’m at a place where I have the will and either skill and ability to learn. But, they’re are so many different avenues I could try and so many seeming fads that look like something I could do, but I don’t have months to just throw stuff at the wall. Once I get SOME income coming in, then I could. I’m looking for advice to this question: taking what I’ve said, if you were me and had to create income quickly in todays online business space, taking into consideration very little investment capital available, where would you focus? What would you do? Thank you so much for your time. I’m really at an almost desperate place. Really appreciate it!

 

[smtoycom]

@richard12511 Seems like you have enough skills and knowledge to do SEO. I would probably find a niche which you would enjoy working with/writing about AND has a high need/willingness to pay for SEO services.

Once you find that niche create 1-3 monthly recurring package offerings. You can look around at competitors in the space for both offering, positioning, and pricing inspiration.

Then grind! Do outbound outreach, partner with web design agencies or adjacent service providers targeting the same niche, start creating content for socials, and reach out to your network to let them know about your offering/new venture.

I’ve toyed with sending videos as an outbound method too, but a 1 in 50 open rate isn’t great when your spending over 500 minutes (that’s over 8 hours) to maybe reach 1 person. You’d be better off investing even 1/10 of that time creating engaging/educational content for socials and another 1/10 of that time posting/commenting on conversations on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Facebook groups.

Wishing you luck in your new venture!

 

[richard12511]

@smtoycom Forgive the late reply, had a couple of expected diversions over the weekend. I really appreciate your thoughtful response and I'm going to implement a lot of what you suggested here. Thank you so much. There's so much noise surrounding working in the digital space, so starting from scratch with various jack-of-all-trades skills is overwhelming and just help pointing myself in a direction is very helpful. Thanks again!

 

[michaelhurt]

@richard12511 Probably getting any job to get steady income would be the best if you don’t have any job(which from the post I’m not sure if you have one). I would advise to loose attitude of get money fast online business as most of the are scams and 99% are not fast

 

[richard12511]

@michaelhurt Thanks for replying. I'm not sure if it came across that way, but I have no delusions of getting rich fast with some scheme. I'm talking about building freelance/agency type work. What I want to do fast, is grab 2-3 paying clients. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

[malachy]

@richard12511 Upwork (or to a certain extent, other online platforms). That's what they are there for. Start low, (just for a few jobs) find your first client (that's key, promise above and beyond for that first client, and either above or beyond for the second). With your skills, you should make north of 50k a year, which is not a lot, but is at least something.

 

[richard12511]

@malachy I recently created an Upwork profile. I am working on creating a simple website that I can use as a sort of portfolio, but I'm also creating a lot of that content from scratch as well because much of work I've done in the past is proprietary. I think your advice of starting low and over delivering is great. Thanks!