what is the quickest way to reach $1k/mo?

[deepanshubaisoy]

Just to be clear I am not looking for easy money, I am willing to put in the work just want to know what options are there.
I have started building a site recently alongside my day job, but I just read a thread from a couple of years back where ccarter was talking about how working on a site for 1 or 2 years and hoping that it reaches $1k/mo is stupid and I think he is right. I'll continue to work on SEO on the side but I think there are better and faster ways to make money on the internet.
In the same thread, he also talked about the game plan of reaching $20k /mo by sending Instagram DM to 200 people a day and getting clients that pay $1k-$5k/mo and how 16-year-olds are earning $10k/mo. After reading this I feel like I am wasting my time and I want to give this method a try, but I am not sure what services I can offer.
I am good at keyword research and basic SEO stuff, can build good websites with WordPress, decent at Pinterest (have an account with 60k+ followers) do you think I can offer any of these services for $1k+? if not what other skills should I learn?
if you have any other recommendations I am open to that as well. what do you think would be the fastest way to reach $1k/mo?

 

[DanielS]

Offer services to businesses and/or influencers. This is the quickest route to $1,000 per month. There's more to it though, such as crafting a good offer, generating leads (sending DMs is an option), managing client expectations, etc.

 

[MinstrelJunkie]

It depends. If you really need the money to make your life better, then freelance however you can. Even just freelance writing daily will quickly get you $1k extra a month to play with.

If you don't desperately need the instant cash, spending your time building something for the long term is often way more lucrative. Many on this forum spent hundreds of hours writing articles on sites that earned pennies for their first year. Only to later reap the rewards once those articles became an established website. (Same goes for setting up any form of business). Chasing the fastest possible $ will often mean you miss more profitable opportunities.

You say you're already running a site, but you're scared it's going to take a long ass time to earn $1k/month. Most people report that because they half-ass it. They write 3-5 articles a month, and wonder why their 40 page website isn't picking up traction. If you follow good practices and really bust your ass, you'll fly past $1k/m before you know it.

This guy is a testament to that. He wrote an article every single day for over 18 months. His blog now earns >$30k/month, and he's still the only writer. (Also covering good keyword research, on-page SEO, and other best practices).

Whatever the case, hard work is key and it sounds like you're ready to roll your sleeves up. Whichever path you choose, commit and get after it.

 

[deepanshubaisoy]

Offer services to businesses and/or influencers. This is the quickest route to $1,000 per month. There's more to it though, such as crafting a good offer, generating leads (sending DMs is an option), managing client expectations, etc.

I am thinking of offering these three services: website development, Pinterest management, and basic SEO(keyword research, etc) what do you think would be the right price for these services? Also, where should I look for clients, I think Upwork and other such sites are pretty saturated, do you think cold emailing and sending cold DMs would be enough?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Here's the conundrum with trading your time for money:

• You don't have time to build income-earning assets
• Any time you're not working, you're not earning money
• And ultimately if you stop the freelance business, the income stops, too
• Now you're right back where you started, having only kicked the can down the road

The only way out of the trap above is to hit scale, meaning you either start hiring people to do the work for your clients or you begin charging enough to outpace your expenses and start saving more, which may or may not be possible.

At which point you've started an actual business, which is what people are really proposing you do when they talk about SEO and anything else that's of the "plant a seed and let it grow" persuasion.

do you think cold emailing and sending cold DMs would be enough?

When was the last time you said yes to a spam message? That's not marketing, it's spam. You need to be doing marketing and being visible to the people who need what you have to offer, you need to convince them you are the trustworthy expert they want to work with.

 

[deepanshubaisoy]

It depends. If you really need the money to make your life better, then freelance however you can. Even just freelance writing daily will quickly get you $1k extra a month to play with.

If you don't desperately need the instant cash, spending your time building something for the long term is often way more lucrative. Many on this forum spent hundreds of hours writing articles on sites that earned pennies for their first year. Only to later reap the rewards once those articles became an established website. (Same goes for setting up any form of business). Chasing the fastest possible $ will often mean you miss more profitable opportunities.

You say you're already running a site, but you're scared it's going to take a long ass time to earn $1k/month. Most people report that because they half-ass it. They write 3-5 articles a month, and wonder why their 40 page website isn't picking up traction. If you follow good practices and really bust your ass, you'll fly past $1k/m before you know it.

This guy is a testament to that. He wrote an article every single day for over 18 months. His blog now earns >$30k/month, and he's still the only writer. (Also covering good keyword research, on-page SEO, and other best practices).

Whatever the case, hard work is key and it sounds like you're ready to roll your sleeves up. Whichever path you choose, commit and get after it.

I am also focusing on publishing at least one article a day currently and I am also planning to hire a writer to ramp up the content production. I agree that building the website would give better returns in the long term so I will continue building this site.
I think I will start freelancing on the side. $800-$1k would be job replacement income for me and if I am able to reach that level I'll be able to quit my day job which would give me more time to focus on growing an online business.

 

[deepanshubaisoy]

Here's the conundrum with trading your time for money:

• You don't have time to build income-earning assets
• Any time you're not working, you're not earning money
• And ultimately if you stop the freelance business, the income stops, too
• Now you're right back where you started, having only kicked the can down the road

The only way out of the trap above is to hit scale, meaning you either start hiring people to do the work for your clients or you begin charging enough to outpace your expenses and start saving more, which may or may not be possible.

At which point you've started an actual business, which is what people are really proposing you do when they talk about SEO and anything else that's of the "plant a seed and let it grow" persuasion.

I understand your point, that is why my goal still is to build an online business that can earn me money somewhat passively.
But I believe making $800-$1000/mo from freelancing won't take too much of my time and it would be enough money for me to quit my day job which would then give me more time to focus on building a business.

When was the last time you said yes to a spam message? That's not marketing, it's spam. You need to be doing marketing and being visible to the people who need what you have to offer, you need to convince them you are the trustworthy expert they want to work with.

That's what I was concerned about too but I am guessing that's how most freelancers get their clients?
How can I market my service without being spammy? what if I create a Twitter or Instagram page where I share some SEO or Pinterest tips and results and then try to get clients from there, I am guessing growing an audience would be a lot more challenging and time-consuming, should I consider going this route?
Or should I drop the idea of freelancing and focus all my time and energy on growing my website?

 

[CCarter]

What's your serious long-term goal(s)? That should determine everything. If you don't have them , where do you visualize yourself in 5 years, 10 years, 20 and so on? That's critical to knowing how to help.

This is also how you setup goals, and steps towards those goals. Look at them daily and when you get lost during the climb.

 

[secretagentdad]

The quickest way to 1k a month is to attach your name to 2 or 3 word generic product with some amount of informational complexity and whore your ass out on video and photo sites stumping for it. (Being an expert requires an internet noise footprint not expertise that’s a dated boomer notion)
Use a .com exact match domain and a real person as a brand champion.

Post everyday on multiple platforms. Don’t get banned.
Interlink. Use your face and be attractive.

Alternately have self respect, aim higher plus don’t leverage your identity to kick start things..... but hey u want fast burn ur own social capital. It’s wut U got to work with.

 

[MinstrelJunkie]

But I believe making $800-$1000/mo from freelancing won't take too much of my time and it would be enough money for me to quit my day job which would then give me more time to focus on building a business.

Gotcha. In that case, you need to run some numbers. How many hours a week do you work your day job? Then estimate your freelancing rate (IE $30/1000 words after Upwork fees). Work out how many hours a week you'd need to freelance to make the equivalent income.

If you need a lot less hours through freelancing, then get started and build a portfolio. Once you're getting regular work then quit the job, build some funds, and grow the hell out of your business.

If the hours needed between your day job Vs freelancing are similar, just build the business ASAP.

 

[freshpeppermint]

Yo i thought about this. Here is the problem. To make 1k per month it will TAKE time with MOST businesses. SO you'd assume if ur goal was only 1k per month you should make it very quickly whereas if your goal is 10k or 100k per month it will take MUCH MUCH Longer but it doesn't work like that.

Also even if you work hard or watever and write many articles per day, it won't speed your earnings to make 1k per month BUT, what it will do is you will earn WAY more than 1k per month if you do that over a period of time. That guy who someone mentioned saying he wrote 1 article every day himself making 30k per month, there's no way he was making 1k per month even 3 or 4 months into the journey.

But wouldn't it make sense to do some freelancing stuff and pour that money into articles? Like charge 50$ per 1k words and then you buy 15-25$ per article?? Also, I was talking to this guy a week ago or so, he makes 30k-50k+ per month designing websites, the dudes good at the website designing but, he said he got most of his clients from SEO and then he showed the keyword he was ranking for, he didn't build any backlinks, claimed SEO was easy, said you need to have longer content, more keyword that ur trying to rank for present and more images with that keyword to rank on google. He also offers "SEO work" and he charges per hours of "SEO worK" done. I can just imagine him selling that and making money but, you see other people offering backlinking services, onpage and all this for much cheaper.
Also, Can't you just dump all the money you make from this kind of thing into buying articles, getting a project manager, a guy to upload all your images?

I was also looking into learning some skills that could make me money. It doesn't matter if it takes some time just that even if say I was to make 10-20k per month from my niche sites, something happens in google and all that money is gone I could rely on something else to make some side money and not go homeless. Ideally, I want to learn or do something which can potentially make a few billion dollars where I will dedicate 20-40 years of my life to get it, if not more. I already know this whole niche site business will NEVER ever get me even close to that level. If it was that good, people wouldn't cash out on their websites, they'd continuously pour in more and more money.