This course on earning more has been a lot of fun. Instead of more useless tips on saving money on lattes and burritos, we’ve gone through case studies, exercises, and specific email scripts to earn more money on the side.
The important thing is to understand that it’s not simply a series of formulaic tactics to follow. To earn money, you have to get inside your customers’ heads and understand what they really want. For example, check out the comments on this post — you’ll see that some people can do this very well, while others cannot.
Here’s a recap of the material I covered.
Week 1: Mindset of earning more money
- Earn more money in 2010
- Attention whiny complainers: Why you STILL aren’t saving money
- The 3 easiest ways to earn more money
- Case study: How a venture capitalist started earning more money on the side
Week 2: Freelancing is the easiest way to earn more
- Week 2: Earning more money
- “But starting a freelance business is too risky!” and other reasons people don’t earn more money
- Earning more money: How to turn your skills into services that people will pay for
- But I don’t want to take a SECOND full-time job to earn money on the side
- The Freelance Diaries: The Caffeinated Project Manager
Week 3: Getting inside your customers’ minds
- Want to earn more money? How to find your first 3 paying clients
- Case study: From $17/hour to $65/hour. How did she do it?
- Psychological tactics to earn more (video)
- The Freelance Diaries: The laid-off marketing consultant whose income has skyrocketed
Things will be quiet on the blog next week. I’ll be running a private email course, covering things like:
- Case study: How an iwillteach reader started earning $1,500/month in the last 2 weeks– including a $750 check *I* am writing him each month (includes email script)
- How one of my readers went from free to fee, convincing me to write him a $10,000+ check in one month (includes the presentation he used to convince me)
- Psychological barrier training
If you haven’t already signed up at Earn1k.com, we’re closing it down soon. See you guys in a few days.
I'm the New York Times bestselling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I co-founded PBwiki and graduated from Stanford.
27 comments
Leave a commentI was hoping you’d make fun of the people who couldn’t get inside their customers’ heads. That way I’d know if I was on the right track or not.
I will. Inside the Earn1k program. Big time.
I don’t know if I’m excited or scared. But I predict that if you do make fun of me, I’ll likely curse your name for a good 15 minutes (no offense), and after that I’ll put on my big girl panties and get to work.
Thanks for recapping what I may have missed. I’m new to the site but think it’s amazing obviously.
I’m also patiently awaiting the Earn1k program as well.
This whole series has been incredibly helpful. Looking forward to the Earn1k program! One step closer to living the dream.
After months of working on saving and spending optimization, I finally started my own business and my website went live yesterday! I’ve got several clients at discounts already who are going to help me out with testimonials. If any of you guys have a moment to check my link and hit me up with some feedback, that would awesome!
This course has been amazing, thank you so much for your great free content, you rock! Anyways I have my own business mostly online too and was really confused on how to budget my finances both personal & business since my income wasn’t set.
Thank you so much!
It’s been awesome, I started offering a blog setup service even though I was not 100% ready for it. I knew I would never be ready anyway so I went ahead and just do it. Work’s been really busy lately but I’m talking to people so I can more clients to jumpstart my freelance business.
Lotsa good content here guys, but I believe just reading one or two of them in each week would be more than enough for you to get started. You can never learn everything before you actually do it, so don’t wait too long!
Thanks Ramit.
Thank you so much for this, Ramit! Week 3 really hit home for me, especially the First Three Clients (my new mantra). Also helped me improve my perspective on the situation. Instead of just doing my usual ad campaigning like I did to start my first biz back when (which worked but took much too long), I will now be delving heavily into productive networking and actually seeking out individuals in need. Something in my head clicked when I read your article. THANK YOU!
Ramit,
This is off topic, but I am trying to find this video of you and Tim Ferris talking about failed start ups and using failure as a learning experience, etc. I’ve done searches on both blogs but can’t find it. Am I imagining this? I could have sworn I saw it once (I want to forward it to a friend).
I’d like to see that video as well. If anyone has a link to it, that would be great
Love love love this whole thing.
Lucky for me, I’ll be leaving a job I’m not fond of anyhow in a few months, so I’ll have time to put everything I learn into practice, finally! Recap is something I need to go through later on today, adding it to my to-do list.
This was an awesome post! I started freelancing seven months ago helping local businesses who wanted to grow their business by using Internet and e-mail marketing to generate more leads and repeat sales.
For many people who want to connect with local business owners with their freelancing skills my advice is this:
1) Make a portfolio that demonstrates your skills–and make sure it kicks ass. Proof and testimonials are the ultimate sales tool.
2) Meet business owners (Meetup.com, Chamber of Commerce, local industry trade groups and associations; etc.). Relationships are everything in business.
3) Focus on your core competency. For example, I’ve met too many web designers who want to play web host and/or SEO specialist. Those are two very different, though complementary, businesses and skill sets. Don’t confuse something that is closely related to your core competency with your core competency. You have limited resources in the beginning and no customers. Your focus needs to be on providing a kick ass service or good while being attentive to your customer’s needs. Don’t stretch yourself thin by providing related services that take away from this focus.
Hey Ramit,
The way you’ve been “promoting” the Earn1k program is an actionable takeaway for the freelancing and consulting readers as well.
“How do I use my site or blog to get clients/customers?”
Do what Ramit did here:
1) Announce a series, theme, free course, etc.
2) Start posting super-useful articles that are laser-focused on a topic
3) Do live video Q&As on the topic
4) Mention to sign up for a list where a program/service *might* happen (feel free to be cheeky here)
5) Rinse and repeat steps #2 & #3 while continuing to include the signup
6) Ask the readers what they’d want from the program/service as you continue mentioning it more
7) Now that you’ve pre-sold most of the potential clients/customers with the weeks of free relevant content, officially announce the program/service (people on the list get first dibs/discounts/whatever)
Ramit, once you launch the Earn1k program and get figures, perhaps you could do one final article laying out how this process helped you get the members/customers.
Looking forward to the Earn1k program,
Oleg
4HR –
I think the link you were looking for was on the “Tripod-of-Stability.” Here is that link:
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/the-tripod-of-stability/
That’s the one – thanks so much – I appreciate it!
Hey Ramit:
Looking forward to Earn1k
Funny story. I would have never read any of this, if my friend, Oleg, would not have said so many nice things about you.
Initially, I was super annoyed by one of your posts and I decided to never subscribe or read anything by you again. I was that mad! But thanks to a great reputation that you had with my friend, I gave it another shot.
I am not disappointed at all! Matter of fact, I am learning many new things about style, content delivery and just how to be yourself from you.
Very helpful! Keep being you.
Best,
Tomas
@Oleg
That’s really insightful.
Sometimes I feel like just watching Ramit’s approach to selling earn1k is as exciting as the content itself.
Nice Ramit, thanks for putting together a great list of the past 3 weeks’ material.
Now I can share/forward this to a lot of people easily. :]
Three weeks? Holy cow. While i was impatient to read the next blog, it seems like it’s only been a week.
I’ve been both encouraged (because i’ve already done much of what you recommend to get started) and dismayed (to realize how long it’s taking me to do the other planning/marketing/customer development stuff that i keep promising myself i’ll do and that you keep telling everyone to get off our collective duffs and “just do it”.)
Thanks for your great insight! This article was SO GREAT that I added it to my Wednesday Wisdoms’ post! The latest and greatest articles of the week! Check it out : http://createyourgreatlife.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/wednesday-wisdoms-2/
Thanks and have a wonderful day!
DeAnna
that’s such a great goal. looks effective, I’ll try that program myself and let see the result, Thanks,
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