How to Make $100 per Day Starting From Nothing Within 3 Months Online
What would you do if you were starting from scratch online today?
How can I make $100 per day as soon as possible?
These questions and others like them are ones that I often get asked. A lot of people are looking for the fastest path to $100 per day since it represents in a lot of cases enough to support their families. To me the ability to not be dependant on a job or the size of a bank account represents true freedom…I would take the ability to generate $100/day over having $100k in the bank.
Well let me share with you a simple business model I would use if I wanted to make $100/day, was starting from basically nothing and…
- Had $1,000 (no more) to invest
- Had no team members
- Had no contacts
- Had no websites or other assets to leverage
- Had some skills but not an expert at anything
- Needed to make $100/day
- Had only 3 months to do it in
- Had time to invest 2-4hrs/day
Where The Model Came From…
I was having a discussion with one of those annoyingly smart people about his business. You know the type… he started and built a successful underwater robotics company and has won national science awards etc. The worst/most annoying part is that he is my older brother.
All kidding aside he has built a successful business and we chat occasionaly about the overlap between the different ventures we are both involved in.
Going through his site it became clear that even after a recent website rebuild there was some massive holes at the top of his sales funnel.
50% of his leads come through his website, digging into his analytics data the majority of those leads came from the Contact Us page and About Us page. Those 2 pages had not been updated in YEARS and they looked like it!
So What Is The Business Model…
Here is the super simple model I would use to get to $100/day if I was starting from 0 right now…
Make the phones ring more for high ticket product sellers/service providers by improving conversions on 2 of the most important pages – the About Us and Contact Us page!
Basically just install lead-pages on 2 pages!
By focusing on just those 2 pages and a specific set of potential clients the value proposition and execution of the service would be remarkably simple!
Basic Execution of the $100/day in 3 months Business Plan
- Become proficient with lead capture tools (just having one would allow this to work – LeadPages or InstaPage) and the general conversion rate optimization body of knowledge from these great sites… (ConversionXL, Online Behavior, VWO, CRO Experts, UnBounce, Conversion Scientist, ContentVerve & KissMetrics)
- Create a list of companies that meet the following criteria (hire a VA to help)
- Geographic region you defined
- Sell products to people out of town (aka get leads through their website)
- Sell high ticket items (machines etc)
- Have clearly not done any CRO on their site (lots of value to add)
- Their website is built on WordPress
- Hustle to make contact with the correct people (visit, phone, network , email – I never said it would be easy but it is simple!) and present value proposition
- For $0 the first month then $300/month (no risk to them – cancel anytime) you will increase their number of leads from their website by x% guaranteed (~20%).
- Then create simple improved landing page for their About Page & Contact Page using – LeadPages or InstaPage)
- Instantly improve conversions more than 20% and charge $300/month for continued use of your services/pages and run 2-3 tests per month to continue to try and improve conversions.
- Send a monthly report showing the conversion rate improvements and up-sell additional services
The value proposition is essentially risk-free for potential customers – $0 up front and they don’t keep paying unless it is worth it to them!
7 Reasons Why It Would Work?
- You are selling to the revenue generating side of the business (more leads = more money)
- Clear value proposition with easily tracked success metrics (more leads and conversion rate – easy to justify spend)
- Risk-free on the customers side for the sale ($0 initial cost)
- Retention with the pages being created in the tool you own/control will help ensure customers stay
- Recurring revenue model with enough value-add of the ongoing optimizing it would be harder for them to flip to a competitor
- Supporting data – A Business – Business sale when you have supporting data to show why you are a good value for them is .
- High ticket product or service sellers are often dedicated to their craft but not necessarily marketing it. This means there is a lot of room for you to add value.
How the Numbers Could Work Out
- Contact 300 Companies in 3 months (100/month = only 5 per working day!!) = 1-2hr/day
- Trial 15% (conservative) = 45 (0.75/day to set up About Us and Contact Us leadpage) = 1-2hr/day
- Close 33% (conservative) = 15 (set up whatever monthly reporting/testing makes sense = 0.5hr
- 15x$300 = $4,500 Revenue Per Month
- Costs = Leadpages ($480) = $40/month, Website ~$10/month, Other misc. $200/month
- Monthly Net Income after 3 Months = $4,250 working 2.5-4.5hrs/day
This probably paints too rosy of a picture in terms of the workload as I have no time in for existing customer management.
Theory vs Practical
Obviously these numbers are all 100% made up but I see no reason why it would not work.
I write this post as an answer to the question….what would I do if I was starting over or if I had to get to $100/day quickly how would I do it.
If anyone is thinking about tackling some variation of this please email me and let me know how it goes.
The other hidden benefit of this model is that you would learn one of the most valuable skill sets online – conversion rate optimization.
Where do you think this business would fail and if you had to start from scratch how would you get to $100/day in 3 months with $1,000 to invest?
Interesting idea, I’ve been pondering how I can stand out as someone who offers SEO and web design. Obviously this is just another part to all of that.. Would this model include anything to generate additional traffic or just simply setting up landing pages and possibly split testing for those clients with their current traffic?
I did a website for a plumber and painter recently. I setup Analytics for both and they have maybe a couple hundred visitors a month.. not unheard of for a small business. Just can’t see the small businesses going after it… the insurance client I have on the other hand might be interested in a service like this.
Hey John, I agree the small business won’t be a good fit but the higher ticket sales people would be a good fit. Lawyers, manufacturers of custom equipment, Consultants etc.
Hello Jon,
I think one problem would be getting paid and qualifying who’s decent to work with quickly.
People tend to devalue a service in their mind the further they get from it in time.
Best to get paid something up front unless it’s like auto repair where you hold a valuable asset.
Even then, I’ve seen cars abandoned at repair shops for fairly small repair bills.
I can see where being able to cut off their new found cash flow by killing the pages you control might be enough.
But…
If they pay something up front then it’s a first test that qualifies them as someone who will get off the cash. This can save you heartache and wasted time trying to collect later.
Another question I’ve been wondering about:
What’s your take on what services like lead pages provide for what they charge for that service that would make them better than making your own pages? This assumes you understand conversion.
Thanks for putting all this info out there. Good stuff!
Dave
Hi Dave, great point about the problem of the free-riders who just get the work but even if the value justifies it doesn’t pay. I think it would have to just be a cost of this kind of model and as long as the % worked in your favour it would be ok. Plus overtime whoever did this would get better at knowing what customers were going to be a good fit and which ones were not.
For me the services like LeadPages or Instapage are worth it…I know I could hire someone to build an equivalent page…but then I couldn’t just take 15minutes and tweak it at 11pm at night. The fact that they make it easy lowers the barrier enough that I use the tools and they provide more value to me then they cost so I have no issues with it. In fact the fact that when I look at all my costs this service is so directly attached to the income side of my business (emails) that I really don’t sweat it the same as the pure expense lines (like even my DropBox or Backup Systems).
Thanks Jon.
Dave
Hey Jon,
Your business model underlines some of the most effective points such as focusing on high priced items, the pages with best conversion rates, irresitible offer.
One of the two weakest visible links of your model in my opinion is traffic. I think if you add this topic (like basic SEO and maybe PBN) then it would be a better business model.
The other weak point as I see it is a selling page (If I’ve got you right that a visitor will push a “Buy now” button on your landing page). The selling page should be quite a good piece of content, especially if a person is going to buy a very expensive item from your page. Moreover, the content is just the king, and the queen is your authority and trust that people should feel in order to make a purchase from your page.
If I assumed the previous point not correclty, and you are just going to send leads and not sell anything on your page, then the content of the selling website matters a lot. I’ve found that even with good flow of traffic if the selling website is poor (from trustworthy pont of view), then the final conversion rates would be not high, and your customer may even think that you send them fake leads. Here the trust between you and your customer comes into play as another difficult factor.
A hidden weak point that I also derived from my practice is how well your customer is aware of conversion analytics to be able to see what their conversion rates are. In many cases website owners (business owners) whose websites are with poor conversion optimization (as you state in your assumptions) can’t even see how much leads you send to them and what conversion rates they have.
Another weak point (and it’s a hidden one and the most important in my opinion) is a personal experience. One thing is to start from absolute scratch and the other thing is to do it with a rich experience behind. For example, I started from the very zero and hoping to get $1K monthly in 6 months with $4K investments and unlimited personal workload and I thought it would be quite simply as my business model was quite straight and clearly explained. However, as it moved along, the reality appeared not too rosy as you say.
So the main take away for me was that business model can be good, plan is great but what matters most is your real-life experience which is a superb factor. And of course, don’t be araid of failures because it’s working for your experience. After all, the key is in doing.
Hi Michael…thanks for your comments.
The way I see it working would not be to generate additional traffic but simply replace 2 pages on their website with high converting pages and see the jump in conversions that way. I think the way I explained it must have made it more complicated.
I am not planning on doing this business just sharing what I would do if I was starting from scartch with some experience. Like you said having some skills already is a huge benefit that not everyone has.
Thanks again for you insights I am sure they would help someone if they do choose to tackle this business.
Oh, I see your approach now. Thanks for the idea.
Hi Jon,
You took a break from the 2015 AS challenge, there must be a reason. Judging by the opportunity cost of this article, there must indeed be a very good reason….
Not taking a break from my authority site challenge. That project has my focus…this was just a thought I wanted to share.
My focus for 2015 is on my services I offer related to expired domains and building out my portfolio of sites with the main site being my authority site.
I am not tackling this business but thought it was a good enough idea I wanted to share it.
Jon
Jon, really interesting post, and a creative idea. I’ll incorporate this into my own project and let you know what I find out. I personally think there is a HUGE opportunity in this space as I’ve explained to you before. I believe there are more opportunities to use landing pages. You’ve given me more to think about.
Hey Tim, I thought about your business plan when I wrote this and 100% agree I think it is a great fit for the customers you are going after. The lower quantity higher ticket sales are highly focused on the top of the funnel and if you can come in and quickly improve that it should be a relatively easy sell. Keep me posted on if you do test the offer at all.
I actually had a conversation tonight with a guy about this idea. That said, it’s a bit different than you envisioned.
I engaged a whitelabel ppc guy tonight and during the course of the conversation he complained about being blamed for poor performance when in his mind the landing page was at least partly to blame.
With our conversation in mind I asked him if he did landing pages. He said no (I was surprised) he just refers them out, but that its a tough sell because his customers tell him those designers are quoting them at least several thousand dollars!!
What if instead of approaching businesses and catching the ones who know they have an issue you approached ppc agencies and offered them the service and maybe even cut them in for a share of the revenue so they really pushed the product.
Very good idea, but I from vietnam, I only want make 200$ per month, I can create website and no expert at anything, How can I do?. I learning SEO. And now I want to make money online. Can you teach me and help me make money online.
Great Idea Jon – Thanks.
I’ve been looking to change up my income earning online in 2014, and this has just given me another idea.