How to Actually Make Money Online (Copy Me)

In 1995, a 28-year-old self-made millionaire who thought he had money figured out. I’d built a thriving business empire consistent of multiple shops and warehouses. Then, almost overnight, the internet made it irrelevant. I had two choices: give up or adapt. You know me, I wasn’t about to quit. So I threw myself into learning everything about making money online.

And like most people today, I fell for the hype. I tried every method out there, and guess what? None of them were as easy as people said. But through trial and error, I cracked the code and rebuilt my businesses, but this time with the internet at the core of my strategy.

Fast forward to today, and making money online isn’t just important, it’s an essential thing everyone should be doing. That’s exactly why I’m writing this article. I spent years testing, failing, and refining, losing millions, making millions, and learning what actually works. Now with this knowledge, I can help you avoid all the mistakes and fast track your success.

So, if you’re tired of false promises and ready to commit for the next 6 to 12 months and build something real, this is for you. No gimmicks, no BS, just a process that actually works.

The Online Wealth Wheel

All right, so this is the online wealth wheel, and whether you realize it or not, you’re already on it. There are three main stages that define where people are in their journey to making money online, plus a secret fourth stage that only a few ever reach. We’ll discuss that one at the end.

Stage 1: No Side Hustle (The 55%)

Let’s kick things off with stage one. This is where everyone starts with no side hustle, and sadly, 55% of people never start at all. Inflation is making everything more expensive. And let’s be real, relying on a single paycheck is more dangerous than ever. So, if having a side hustle is essential, why do 55% of people still avoid it? Because the online space is a jungle. It’s full of ads pushing proven methods that confuse more people than they actually help.

How to Start: Skills vs. Products

The key to starting the right way is picking a method that suits your skills, budget, and lifestyle. If you already have a skill like video editing, graphic design, coding, or even setting up Discord servers, people pay great money for these services, and there’s no shortage of demand. But what if you don’t have a skill to sell or, quite simply, don’t want to deal with clients? That’s where product-based businesses come in. One of the best options is selling products online without ever holding inventory yourself. But I’ll get into this in more detail later on.

Stage 2: Running a Failing Side Hustle (The 28%)

That brings me on to… running a failing side hustle. I’m classing a failing side hustle as earning less than $50 per month online. Sadly, 28% of people are trapped here. A lot of people aren’t going to like me saying this, but it has to be said: it’s almost never your side hustle that’s flawed or doesn’t work. You’re most likely just not putting enough time and effort in. I know that could be hard to hear, but this isn’t really your fault. It’s down to something called shiny object syndrome. This is when you constantly jump from one trendy online money-making method to another without committing and putting your absolute all into any of them. One week it’s drop shipping, then print on demand, then selling books on Amazon KDP, then trading stocks, and then starting a social media agency.

The truth is, all the online money-making methods I just mentioned work, but each requires a different level of time commitment, and you’ll never get anywhere by jumping from one to the other. It’s like that classic diagram of miners tirelessly digging for gold, only to give up just before striking it rich. Instead of pushing through, they abandon their progress, start fresh somewhere else, and waste all that initial effort repeating the cycle over and over again. If you get stuck in this dangerous pattern like the 28% of other people, then you need to recognize it and simply pick a method and stick to it.

The Solution: E-commerce and Automation

Forget the idea of a perfect side hustle, just pick one that’s easy to start and has the potential to scale. If you don’t have a high-income skill to sell, then I’m going to make this super simple for you. In all my years of experience, the thing that has made me the most amount of money online is e-commerce. So I recommend you focus on that, but not in the way most people do. A lot of beginners assume starting an online store means dealing with inventory, suppliers, or complex setups, but that’s not the case anymore. That’s because you can now utilize AI-built Shopify stores. Instead of spending weeks setting everything up like I had to back in the day, you can now use a free tool called buildyourstore.ai to launch a fully automated store that would normally cost $200 to $300 to set up, but this does it for free in a matter of minutes.

You just enter your name and email, pick a niche like fashion, tech, or pets, and the AI chooses winning products, designs your store, and makes it look professional from day one. If you want to go through this process completely for free, then just click the link in the description and it’ll walk you through everything. From there, it syncs directly with Shopify, giving you exclusive access to a 3-month Shopify trial for only $1 per month.

Making Sales: Fulfillment and Marketing

But what about making sales? Well, the biggest mistake people make with e-commerce is giving up too soon. Surprise, surprise. This is probably because they don’t want to deal with inventory or fulfillment. That’s why the free AI store builder also walks you through how to integrate a tool called AutoDS, which is kind of like the autopilot system on a plane. It imports trending products, updates pricing and images, and even ships orders directly to your customers. This means you don’t have to touch inventory, package anything, or deal with supplier negotiations. You focus on driving traffic and making sales while the system handles the rest. Full disclosure, AutoDS are long-term supporters of this channel, but even if they weren’t sponsoring this portion of the video, I’d still recommend them.

You can easily create a buzz around your products by creating videos about them on TikTok for free. If you get 100k views and just 1% of the people go and buy your product for $10, then that’s $10,000 in revenue. So if you’re serious about breaking out of the failing side hustle trap, then choosing a simple, automated model like this gives you the best chance of success. No more bouncing between business ideas, just commit, launch, and put in the work to scale it up.

Stage 3: Running a Successful Side Hustle (The 16%)

Stage three is running a successful side hustle. Believe it or not, only 16% of people who start making money online ever make more than $50 per month. The people in this percentile make anywhere from $51 on the low end all the way up to $10,000 a month. Of course, the higher end is what I’d consider actually successful. So what are these 16% of people doing differently, and how can you start applying it to yourself? Well, there’s some clear things that I’ve noticed that separate the people who struggle from those who actually make money online. And to help you get there, I’m going to break them down into four key steps that you can follow.

Step 1: Stop Trying to Appeal to Everyone

Step one is to stop trying to appeal to everyone. You might think casting a wide net will get you more sales, but in reality, it does the opposite. If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one. So before you even start promoting your store, grab a notepad or open your notes app and describe your ideal customer. How old are they? What are their interests? What are their struggles? And what type of content do they consume? The clearer you are about this, the easier it becomes to create content that actually grabs their attention. Think of it like this: it’s always easier to get one person’s attention by speaking directly to them than it is to shout at a crowd and hope someone listens.

Step 2: Stay Consistent

Step two is to stay consistent. Most people go all in for a few weeks, fueled by a burst of motivation, then vanish the moment they don’t see instant results. The key is putting consistency over perfection. You don’t need to be working 12-hour days or waking up at 5:00 a.m. You just need small, daily actions that keep your store in front of people. So here are some actionable things you should focus on every day: Post content about your products daily to stay visible and consistently appear in people’s feeds. Engage with comments and messages to build trust, strengthen relationships, and increase the likelihood of conversions. Test different product descriptions and images, since even small tweaks can significantly impact sales.

Step 3: Show, Don’t Just Tell

Step three is to show, don’t just tell. Most people’s marketing strategies completely miss the mark, no pun intended. They just don’t make it clear why someone should buy their product. For example, let’s say you’re selling custom gaming controllers. Just posting a gameplay clip with a link in the description isn’t enough. People need a clear reason to buy. Instead of assuming they’ll connect the dots themselves, you need to show and tell. Start by showcasing the controller up close. Demonstrate how the extra buttons, or as you gamers know them, paddles and trigger stops, enhance gameplay. Explain the real benefits, like how these features help players react faster and gain an edge in competitive matches. Finally, compare it to a standard controller to highlight exactly why yours is better. If customers can’t clearly see the product, understand why it’s different, and immediately grasp how it benefits them, they won’t buy it. It’s as simple as that.

Step 4: Build Trust with Social Proof

Step four is to build trust with social proof. People need proof before they spend their money, especially when buying from a brand they’ve never heard of. Think about it for a second. Would you buy a fitness program that promises insane results but has zero before and after photos and no testimonials? Probably not. If you’re just starting out, order your own product and record an unboxing video to show exactly what customers will receive. Even if you don’t have sales yet, ask friends or family to test them out and leave honest reviews, as it’s better to have some feedback than none at all. Finally, showcase real people using your products instead of relying solely on stock photos. People have been burned by bad online purchases before. I mean, we’ve all seen those situations where the product is nothing like the picture. So make sure your customers know exactly what they’re getting and why other people love it.

Stage 4: Running an Elite Side Hustle (The <1%)

Now, I told you that there was a secret stage at the end. Well, that’s… stage four, running an elite side hustle. We’ve talked about breaking past the early struggles and building a solid side hustle, but this is the level that I estimate less than 1% of people ever reach. So what sets these 1% of people apart from the rest? One word: reinvesting. As soon as you start making money, put a small portion back into your side hustle. A lot of people think the goal of making money is to spend it on nice things, but the real power of money is using it to make even more money.

The Key: Reinvesting

I’ve talked before about investing in the stock market, but when you’re just starting out, the best investment isn’t stocks, it’s your own business. Unlike stocks where you have to sit back and wait, you have full control over growing your own side hustle. So how do you reinvest in a way that actually helps you make more? Well, firstly, you focus on upgrading your tools. In the beginning, you might be doing everything manually, but once you start making sales, reinvesting in tools that save you time can help you scale. Secondly, you can put money into getting more customers. The people that make the most money online don’t just wait for people to come to them, they reinvest in marketing to bring in more traffic and sales. Whether that’s paying for ads, testing new content ideas, or working with small influencers to get their store in front of the right audience. Thirdly, you can start to outsource. Instead of trying to do everything alone, the 1% reinvest in outsourcing small tasks. Now, if you’re just getting started, this might sound like something you should worry about later, but that’s exactly why most people never reach this level. This could be as simple as paying someone on Fiverr to design a better logo for your store, or paying your friend to film some social media content for you.

If you start thinking this way early on, knowing that your first profits should go back into growing your side hustle, you’ll already be ahead of 99% of people who get stuck at these lower levels.