3 Ways to Make Money Online for Small Businesses

Business Foundation Skills, Business Sales, Making More Money

“See Monica, here’s what I want to do. I just started my business. And I don’t want to work one on one with people, that’s too time consuming. What I’m really good at is working with people in groups. So I’m going to start a group program and I plan on getting 10 people into it.”

“I want to create online products, where people can buy from me and then they just go through my videos and handouts. That way, I don’t have to do anything but sell the product, since it will already be done online.”

“I want to write a book. Then I’ll sell thousands of copies. Each person that buys a copy will be interested in working with me and that’s how I’ll grow my business.”

Everyday I hear comments like this from women entrepreneurs who are speaking to me for the first time. If you want to create any of these products or services in your business, please keep reading.

The next question I ask them is:
“How many people do you have on your email list?”

To which I usually get one of the following responses:
“None. I don’t have a list yet.”
“I have thousands of people on Facebook.”
“250 people.”

None of these answers are wrong. But it’s clear that these folks are missing some important business information. I’ll detail that information below as well as give you three ways to make money online.

The first way of making money online: you need to build an email list!

Not a facebook or Instagram following but an actual list of people who have given you permission to email them.

Here’s why:

First, people who buy from you are the ones that know, like and trust you. They are folks that have been able to build a relationship with you. When people sign up to be on your mailing list, they are giving you permission to send them emails (like this one!). And over time, you can build a relationship with them. Once this relationship is built, you’ll then have a list of raving fans who are excited to buy your stuff.

Second, you need a LOT of people in order to make a splash online.

Here’s what I mean. On average, for a list that is greater than 1,000, anywhere from 9-20% is the open rate. So that means if you send out an email to 1,000 people, 200 people will open it. Let’s say you want to promote a product or service to those 200 people, about 1-3% usually buy it. That means that you might get 2-6 purchases. And that’s if the emails are excellent and the price point is below $500 (for beginners). If the price point is above $500 ($1,000 for advanced sellers), generally you will need to have offline sales conversations with people.

You can see from the numbers that you need a large list in order to support yourself full-time with virtual products, books and group programs. And that you must keep replenishing that list over time.

Moving on to the second way of making money online: webinars.

So now that you have a list, you can use webinars to create a splash with that list. Now I know, you’re probably thinking, but Monica, everyone uses webinars. Or you might be thinking webinars don’t really work for me.

So first, let’s talk about the why behind webinars. Webinars allow you to build expertise and credibility with your attendees. The participants get a chance to see you speak, hear how you explain things and learn more about you. This greatly increases the chances that they will buy. To be clear: you are WAY more likely to sell anything off of a webinar than by just sending an email alone. So be sure to use webinars as a part of your making money online strategy.

Second, you need to know the numbers behind webinars, because they aren’t pretty! Only 10-30% of the people who sign up for your webinar show up live.

And of those that show up live you can expect to convert 10-20% (if you’ve learned how to sell well). So that means if 100 people signed up for your webinar – let’s say 20 would show up for it. That means you could sell between 2-4 products. So you see, having that large list is incredibly important for webinars as well.

And let’s get to the third way of making money online: offer complimentary conversations (otherwise known as sales conversations).

I know, I know, this doesn’t officially fall under “making money online while you sleep.” But this strategy continues to be one of the most lucrative ways of monetizing your online leads. And you can sell packages of $25,000 and more if you know how to sell well (now we’re talking!).

So here’s how this works. Do your webinar. At the end of your webinar offer complimentary conversations with you. Now don’t do this lightly. As in a one-minute “If you want to work with me, here’s my info” kind of thing. No, you’ll need to craft a 10-minute offer at least. For more help with this, connect with us at Revenue Breakthrough and learn more about our programs.

After you’ve done your webinar send out between 1-4 more emails letting people know that you are offering conversations.

Here’s the most amazing thing about this strategy – you don’t have to have a big list to do it. Yeehaw! Finally, something that works for those of you just starting. Now don’t get me wrong – it’s not foolproof. If you have a list that is mixed with people who never open your emails or is totally cold, this strategy won’t work.

This strategy has been successful for tons of clients I’ve worked with over the years. Here’s an example. One of my clients who is a relationship expert tried this strategy. She had about 60 people register for her webinar. 12 people showed up. And she set up 11 sales conversations from that call. She’s still making money from that webinar!

So perhaps you started this article thinking that you were going to get 3 ways to make money online – secret tips and tricks. But here’s the thing that I’ve learned over the years – the most important information I can give you is for you to understand the basics of how to sell and make money online.

Because there’s a huge number of marketing experts misrepresenting this process. They are out there shouting, “If you just learn this podcast strategy, or build an amazing program, or do videos, you’ll make tons of money online.” But they don’t teach about the most crucial piece – for these strategies to work consistently and generate large amounts of income – you need a large online list. And you should start building that list now.

Just last week I met a couple who had spent $10,000 with a marketing company who had helped them create an online program with videos. They had spent about 15 months working on it. When I asked how big their list was – they said, we don’t have a list. I was angry at the industry and so sad for them at the same time. Because they could have been building a list the whole time.

Every time I hear a story like this, which I do often, it breaks my heart.

And the truth is there are so many more bells and whistles I could talk about here, from how to use videos and social media in your webinar process to how to do sales conversations. But for now – this will get you started.