How to build a Million Dollar Business Online
Does that interest you?
If you’re like me, you’ve seen at least a hundred blog posts and YouTube videos using a variation of that promise. I’ve read and watched a bunch of them. Most of them are pretty convincing.
To their credit, everybody says it’s a lot of work, although they go on to make everything look pretty easy.
Find your niche, create your blog or channel. Post high quality content. Learn SEO (search engine optimization). Engage with your subscribers. Promote your site/channel. Run ads. Get sponsors. Do affiliate deals. Create and sell digital books and courses.
Do all that and you’ll eventually earn a good income, be your own boss and maybe even become something called an “influencer.”
Sounds good to me.
So I’ve decided to give it a try, and I invite you to tag along.
You’re welcome to watch how I do it, every step of the way.
If I can do it, you can do it. Right?
But I’m not starting from the end of the process, offering you neat lists of how I succeeded.
I’m starting at square one —
probably the same place you’re sitting. As I write this, I have not yet taken the first step beyond thinking about this whole experiment.
And that’s what this is — an experiment. I want to see if I can build an online business that generates annual sales of $1 million. I’ll test most of the ways I’ve heard about making money online, plus a couple of my own.
In order for you to read this, though, I will have had to have created a website for my blog and taken some action to bring it to your attention. I’ll cover all of that in the next few posts.
Depending on when you discover me, riscorick.com could look pretty minimalist and basic. I’m no designer. That’s part of my “square one” approach. I expect to revise the look of my site as I learn more about how to do it, and as I figure out what I like.
My goal here is just to have some fun trying things, learning things and sharing my experience with anyone with similar curiosity. Successes and failures. Complete transparency.
The learning part is particularly important to me, which is why I intend to do everything myself, rather than hire specialists to give me shortcuts. Not only do I believe that “knowledge is power,” I also know that every new skill I acquire will give me enormous satisfaction and open new doors for me.
Here’s a partial list of what I hope to learn through this effort:
- How to create a WordPress website;
- How to create an appealing blog design;
- How to find/create effective blog images;
- How to develop and maintain an editorial schedule;
- How to track and use analytics to grow my audience;
- How to build and use an email list;
- How to place advertising on my blog;
- How to secure sponsorships for my blog;
- How to use affiliate deals on my blog;
- How to promote my blog to build my audience;
- How to create a YouTube Channel;
- How to plan a DIY video shoot;
- How to use my phone to shoot videos;
- How to use my camera to shoot videos;
- How to use lighting to best effect;
- How to capture good recorded sound;
- How to edit video properly;
- How to create appealing thumbnail images;
- How to use YouTube analytics to build my audience;
- How to promote my channel;
- How to create and sell digital books and papers;
- How to design and publish effective email newsletters;
- How to use Patreon to generate subscriber revenue;
- How to develop and outsource products for sale;
- How to use Kickstarter and GoFundMe;
- How to self-distribute a movie;
- How to build a team to support a $1 million online business.
That’s quite a list! And it’s exciting. Learning new things and creating new things excites me.
Let’s get started.
The next step is to build and launch a WordPress website.
Are you in? I hope so.
I respectfully invite you to subscribe…
by hitting the subscribe button at the top and entering your email address. I promise not to share your email address with anyone and to send you emails only when I have new information for you.
This is going to be fun!