If You Want to Make a Living on the Internet, Don’t Miss Out on This [As I Did]

Don’t make the same mistakes as me.

Being a solopreneur has been great! A lot of freedom.

I just got back last week after spending 4 days on a workation in the Southern part of India. I was by the river, surrounded by coconut trees in an Ayurvedic resort.

I don’t believe in workations, but I tagged along with my husband for his work, so I worked too.

But also relaxed a lot.

Got my first shirodhara massage which this state is famous for.

But this is to tell you something that I thought of in my time alone…

Often, I think of what would have I done differently as a solopreneur and what I can change now. After a LinkedIn audience of 150,000+, an email list of 13,000+ and a decent audience across platforms, the room for change also feels little.

So if you’re on your path, I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as me. Let me show you how.

1/ Know and Curate for My TA

I’m not a very specific creator because I don’t enjoy hammering about solopreneurship and side hustling all the time. It’s way too aggressive and I’m not that vibe in person in real life, so can’t do it online too.

I’m also a hardcore traveler, and into personal development.

I enjoy sharing my life experiences.

I feel all of this adds a soul to my content instead of just another Twitter bro who talks about work all the time and we don’t know how true that is.

Yes, this backfires on me in terms of my course sales.

I don’t talk about my LinkedIn course all the time, so people aren’t aware of it. I’m not always showing how much $$$$ I made so people will buy from somebody who gives that proof.

And honestly, that's okay with me.

I’m in this long run. I’m only 27 and I want to keep learning instead of optimising myself to earn more and aim only and only at that.

Why should you do this?

Depending on where you are in life and the responsibilities you have, it might help to curate your content solely for your target audience and solve for them.

How to do it?

Some of you have spent years, if not decades, working in a single domain. For example, financial planners for medium-income households should create content around this and their experience in this domain. It will help you with credibility and business.

2/ Research Where I Put My Money In

Of course, I already do this, I’m not stupid!

But I should’ve done a better job at it.

Before writing this article, I wrote an email to Kajabi because

I can’t take USD payments in India
It’s not even Stripe’s fault

And as a course creator, I’m losing out on money. A lot of it.

I created a parity page for those in India and the last two transactions have been made by those who aren’t from India. Namely, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

So I earned half because they could pay half.

This is a broken system and I don’t know what can I do better. It’s as frustrating as it can get.

Why should you do this?

Imagine spending $1908 on software and it’s not giving you a ROI. It’s painful.

Like, it is. But not as much as it can.

How to do it?

Read more comparisons and experiences. If you’re not from the US, ask these questions early on.

3/ Reach Out for Speaking Opportunities

As a corporate trainer, I can easily earn upwards of $10K per talk. And this is in India, I’m not sure of the rates abroad.

That’s my goal for the coming five years now.

I met a fellow LinkedIn creator yesterday who is 25 and does this for a living. She’s given over 500 talks and 60 of them were for free. Imagine – hundreds of hours spent for free. But it helped her get better at:

public speaking
curriculum creation
obviously, her expertise

It’s how some of us writers give away 99% of our content for free so we can charge for the 1% in terms of coaching, digital products, and courses.

For those of you who’d want to get into training and workshops, this looks like a brilliant way to work towards it.

Why should you do this?

Apart from being another income source, I’m assuming it’s also a super fun thing to do and gratifying as well. Also, it should also help you get better because you’ll directly work with people and understand their challenges.

How to do it?

If you’ve already been a speaker, talk about how you’ve done it.

Apart from that, perhaps do what I’m planning to do — approach people and work with them, for free.

Lastly

Everything is a learning process and I try to share my mistakes and improvement areas so somebody else who is in the place I was a year ago can do better. And hopefully, avoid the same mistakes as me.

We discussed:

Knowing and curating for your target audience: so you can have laser-sharp focus and it’s better for business, too. I don’t do this because I like to play around. But for those of you in different stages of life, this may help immensely.
Research where you put your money in: think of as many scenarios as you can and ask plenty of questions. Deep dive with the help of YouTube videos and articles.
Reach out for speaking opportunities: if that’s something you want to do long-term. Don’t be afraid to do it for free, it’s how we learn.

I hope this helps you in your own solopreneur path. All the best!