Image by Phil Nguyen from Pexels
It all started 10 years ago.
In the jungle of…
Scratch that, let’s talk about something realistic.
You & I know that making your first dollar can be both the toughest & easiest thing to do.
1. You don’t know how
2. You don’t know your niche
3. You don’t have the experience
Even if $1 is the simplest number in the world, it often becomes the most complicated & arduous journey than 20,000 leagues under the sea. For me, anyway.
In the sea of opportunities on the internet, getting started especially if you’ve never had a job can seem both daunting & a piece of cake. Those were my feelings exactly when I started over 6 months ago.
At the time I was fresh in college (remotely), and trying to figure out how to just do sh*t in general.
I had a job before, but in a physical environment — which proved much simpler than the fast-changing internet. Even if I knew the dangers that could happen, I was still looking for “fast money” because I didn’t know what long-term even looked like.
So in my quest at looking at affiliate marketing, POD, printables, and the etc. I came across a service (I have no recollection of what it’s called) that was a quick money service of basically watching advertisements.
You know how AD-Sense on YouTube works, right? That was pretty much how you earned on this platform. Except, rather than filming videos to be deserved of the $1 per 1000 views. All I had to do was watch an AD & get paid nearly immediately.
Naïve as I was to thinking that I could buy a house with this money, I signed up & started with watches these ADs. At least, since I was in a Graphic Design degree, I tried to pay attention to each design element used to stitch up these short videos, though it was really an excuse for my grieving head to watch — because I hated every second.
Afterwards I realized, _“They only payout after 5.
Simple right? Yep, that’s all the money I need to pay for my car right now, for sure.
After realizing that maybe earning $1 wasn’t that hard, it was around November 2022 that I stumbled across a YouTuber that switched my mindset right around.
Talking about business concepts from a lively & illustrated manner, I began to grasp concepts that seemed boring to me before. And then did I realized how making money online really worked.
Although I never did her POD business strategies, it got me down the rabbit hole of research & experimentation.
Not quite the way
Image by Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels
Watching advertisement videos may be a somewhat common thing — for people who are used to brain rot at least, I would also call it an uncommon way since not everyone is willing to do it.
This next chapter of my journey is where I start diving into social media — a very common outlet.
In March 2023 after the winter of research & college work, I started my Instagram account. I had no goal, but I found it fun to dive into the Spring Graphic Design trends & find people who liked 3D modeling in Blender — something I was very passionate about, and still am.
Throughout the spring & summer I saw influencers doing gaming trends with aesthetic keyboards, and others selling printables and thought, “hey, why don’t I do this!”
Although I didn’t have money (psstt, I still had that $5 remember), I used my simple setup to do the popular reels & stories which boosted my growth to a grand 100 followers.
Yet, no matter how much I worked on my printables, no one would buy them.
I didn’t think much about it at the time, I just thought that that’s how things went. But as it got into autumn & I was guilted by my whole timeline to get an autumn redecoration, I realized that I wasn’t cut out for the “keyboard influencer” life.
In fact, I realized that I didn’t even like keyboards. My laptop suited me just fine, thank you.
Ok that was a quick summary, but it was both a draining & very educational timeframe.
Moving into autumn, I came across a person on Etsy with a 4 landing page & decided, _“I should get this!”_ And used my very first 5 internet money to pay for it, and boy I didn’t regret it, because it helped me a lot in the next chapter of my journey.
Finding my Niche
Image by Kerde Severin from Pexels
At the time that I was on Instagram, it was the same time that Threads was going overload. Leading me to realize how different Twitter (right before it was established as X) and Instagram were.
I had a Twitter account actually, which I found a lot easier (and less guilt tripping) to use than Instagram’s constant doom scrolling. And since I had been burned on Instagram, I decided to begin anew — despite not feeling comfortable at all, since I had built what I thought was an infrascture on Instagram.
Putting myself out there as a “Graphic Designer with a passion for 3D & color theory,” it didn’t take long before I stumbled across a guy’s profile who was a Graphic Designer & Notion creator.
Notion creator? Who’s dis…
I was familiar with Notion, but wasn’t a fan considering it’s simplicity seemed useless to me, though I never used productivity software anyway.
It was after slowly stepping in that I started getting the gist of Twitter and, actually, really started loving it!
I wasn’t pressured to do reels, all I needed to do was write & share an occasional photo over time.
Though I still favored Instagram when it came to comfort, Twitter wasn’t far off from being my main platform. So I realized that I had a hard decision to make.
Deleting Instagram
After the few connections that I had made — even if they seemed huge to me at the time, I knew that even having an Instagram account would be toxic since I would continually have the push & pull of even just looking.
So I deleted it. Leaving everyone behind. In truth, they weren’t that smart anyway by continuing to get their information drained on Instagram (the Meta connection, you know…), whereas Twitter had started putting in better policy measures in addition to finally getting rid of bots, so I was happy!
The few months that followed I growed rapidly. Mentality-wise I mean, because I had only gained 200 followers in that time.
From learning in the community of Notion & Graphic Design creators, I started putting out Notion templates & setting up a Lemon Squeezy shop.
I have never been more happier with this decision, since I found not just the right people, but:
-Â My niche & what I was doing
-Â An avenue I really enjoyed
-Â Had experience from small but failed ventures
Though there was still a problem… I wasn’t making any money.
But soon enough, after hosting a giveaway on X for my hand-drawn Notion Covers, I earned another $5!
Comparing the 1st 5 I made, I’m very proud to say that the hours of work put into these Notion Covers were way more satisfactory than the arduous AD-watching hours.
And not just that, but a few months later & into last month I’ve made more than $50 from these Notion Covers!
The power of digital products is incredible, especially when I only have to create & list my product once!
Even though this income stream isn’t the most reliable, I’ve also started posting on Medium. Which I’m happy to say that I added $10 to my balance from it last month.
Not only am I doing what I love, but I’m continuing to learn how to scale. In fact, my goal is $300 a month by June.
By experimenting,
networking with others,
and keeping my options open,
I’ve been able to make my first $5.
There’s a lot of ways to make money online, you just have to find the best way for you.
This story is different than my usual, but I had this idea in mind so now was finally the time to express it. Thank you for reading!