How I Made My First Dollar Online

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Merry Christmas! 🎄

Yes. I’m in your inbox on Christmas day.

If you’re taking the time to read this on Christmas day, then I’ve got something even sweeter than egg nog for you:

The exact steps I took to make my first dollar online…

Let’s go!

But first…

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Imagine...

You wake up.

Make breakfast.

Open your laptop.

And…

Your eyes widen.

There it is.

Money.

On your computer screen.

Real. Money. From the internet.

Dollar signs have never appeared more beautiful.

Your heart is racing.

You can’t believe it…

But, you made your first dollar online.

• You didn’t need to hand out resumes to dozens of dead-end jobs.

• You didn’t need to work your tail off for weeks on end for a measly paycheck.

• You didn’t need to leave your home.

• You didn’t even need to put on pants.

All you needed was:

-the internet
-and your mind

And you did it.

Bliss.

That’s how I felt when I made my first dollar online.

It was 2019.

I had been ferociously devouring copywriting books and courses.

Everything I could get my hands on.

5 am wake-ups became the norm.

Every morning I’d wake up and power write before my 9 to 5.

After work, I’d be back in the books.

• Learning from the copy legends.

• Handwriting sales letters.

• Dreaming of something more.

The question is, how exactly did I earn my first dollar online?

Well, it wasn’t with Money Twitter.

I did it with zero followers on social media.

Here’s how it happened:

I had been learning and practicing copywriting every day for weeks.

I could see I was improving in my writing.

The 30-minute power sessions were crucial to my growth.

I think I was finally ready.

But, now what?

I had a few options:

• Reach out to friends and family

• Wait for inbound leads with a blog

• Apply to local jobs (door to door style)

• Send cold pitches to people with email

• Or, get myself on freelance marketplaces

I knew I could have probably landed some IRL jobs by reaching out to friends and family.

But, I was stubborn.

Pro Tip: “Friends and Family” is probably the fastest way:

• To get paid work

• At the very least—get a testimonial

Landing clients is all about stacking credibility and proof.

You may not have much experience or proof of copy expertise (or whatever your skill is)...

But…

Your friends and family trust you (hopefully).

You have leverage with them as a person that can outweigh the lack of results/proof of your skills.

Anyways, I chose to go the harder path and strictly take the online path.

My end goal was to earn online anyways, so why mess around with offline stuff?

At least, that’s how I thought.

Looking back, the fastest way would have likely been to reach out to people I knew in real life.

Or walk into local businesses and pitch them (door-to-door style).

But, I chose to limit myself to online.

So, my remaining options were:

• Reach out to friends and family

• Wait for inbound leads with a blog

• Apply to local jobs (door to door style)

• Send cold pitches to people with email

• Or, get myself on freelance marketplaces

I had no idea how to launch a blog, so that was a pass.

I had no idea how to cold pitch via email, so that was a pass.

One option remained:

Freelance marketplaces.

Through my YouTube learnings and courses, everyone kept raving about this place called “Upwork”, formerly known as Elance or Odesk.

It was the mecca of freelance marketplaces.

Plenty of work.

A trusted platform.

Secured payments.

Testimonials and reviews.

And clients were just waiting to hand over their cash to newbie copywriters like me.

So, I applied.

I was so excited.

I finally found my path to freedom.

I got the email back.

Here we go!!!

Wait…

What?

I couldn’t believe it.

Denied.

But… my application was so good... wasn’t it?

So, I waited the mandatory waiting time before re-applying.

And applied again.

But…

I was denied again.

And again…

And again…

I applied seven times.

And was rejected every single time.

I felt hopeless.

I thought this was my ticket out.

Eventually, I went back to the drawing board.

Freelance marketplaces…

Hmm.. there’s a couple other ones here.

I applied to Freelancer. Guru. And a few others.

And then, I came across Fiverr.
^{(btw I’m not a Fiverr affiliate in case you’re wondering)}

Fiverr? 

What’s that?

Fiverr was a reverse uno card.

Instead of hunting down posted jobs as a freelancer…

Fiverr does the opposite.

They make freelancers throw up “gigs” showing businesses what they can do for them.

It’s a service, but in a product form.

Productized services.

It seemed so strange to me.

But, I looked into it.

Wait.

There was one problem.

Five dollars?

That’s how little people are paying freelancers here?

I almost ducked out.

How would I make enough to survive off $5 writing gigs?

But then… I saw another freelancer talk highly about it.

The platform originally started by only letting people charge $5 per service.

But, they slowly allowed price increases.

I saw I had the potential to charge whatever I wanted.

So, I created a few “gigs.”

For super cheap: $10-$15 an article.

I had been learning about blog writing and SEO, so I offered to write articles for people.

I didn’t know what topics I wanted to write about.

But, I was interested in travel, personal finance, and business. 

So, I started there.

Rather than put up a generic gig like “I will write a great article for you,” I was specific:

• “I will write a 500 word business article in 1 day.”

• “I will write a 500 word travel article in 1 day.”

• “I will write a 500 word personal finance article in 1 day.”

Told them the word count, the topic, and a fast time frame.

I had to offer something better than the competition, especially since I had no reviews or completed gigs yet.

And, it worked.

But, not at first.

I had my gig up for about a week.

And what happened?

Nothing.

Crickets.

No one bought anything.

Didn’t even receive a message.

I was getting impressions.

But no conversions.

But, why?

I had no PROOF that I could write a “500 word travel article in 1 day.”

You see, I didn’t have any samples to show people.

Why?

Because no one had hired me yet.

No clients = no samples.

But…

No samples = no clients.

It’s a vicious cycle that every new creator deals with.

People won’t hire people on merit alone (unless you’re a friend or family member).

They hire based on proof that you know what you’re doing.

No one is going to hire someone if they can’t show them they’re an expert.

Businesses don’t want to waste their time.

So, if they need a specific type of work done, they’re going to hire someone who has done similar work before.

Resumes, websites, and even testimonials (to some degree) are vanity trust factors.

The main thing businesses want to see is that you’ve done work that’s relevant to what they need.

And, to sweeten the deal even more, they want to see good results from your work.

Showing results is critical in direct-response copy.

In a lot of content writing, it’s not as crucial (as a lot of content writing is about engaging and educating readers rather than driving conversions).

So, what did I do to get samples?

I “hired myself.”

• I wrote a few travel articles.

• I wrote a few business articles.

• I wrote a few personal finance articles.

And put them up as samples on my gigs.

I simply gave myself projects to complete so I could show off my article work.

Keep in mind, I didn’t make a 2nd Fiverr account and game the system to hire myself. What I’m saying is I just gave myself projects to complete for fun outside of the platform.

This gave me a few articles I could then show potential clients to prove I could do the work.

I never lied or said these were for a client.

If someone would have asked me, I would tell them the truth that I just made them for myself to show clients. But, no one did.

Within a few days of putting my samples up, it happened.

“Congrats on your first sale!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

When it happened, my wife and I were at my parent's place visiting.

I was so happy.

I screamed.

I leaped.

I cried.

And, I did this all in front of my family.

They probably thought I was nuts.

$15 articles.

But, I didn’t care one bit.

It actually worked.

Someone bought my gig!

It was one of the greatest feelings of my life.

Sure, these were articles for $15.

But, they bought two.

And gave me a $15 tip.

I made $45.

It felt like I won the lottery.

$45 was hardly enough for a trip to the grocery store.

But, I didn’t care.

More than anything, that first dollar online gave me hope.

It put fuel on the fire to keep going.

It made me realize this online thing was really possible.

It was just a taste of the dream I was after.

To earn a living from my laptop.

Freedom.

I knew that if someone was willing to hand $45 over to a random stranger, someone out there would be willing to hand over:

• $450

• $4,500

• Or even more.

That first dollar was everything to me.

I’ll never forget it.

A few days later…

I landed my second client.

A week after that…

I got my third.

Soon enough, I had plenty of:

• Clients

• Samples

• Testimonials

• Work experience

And, the snowball kept rolling, getting bigger and bigger.

I started raising my rates.

I started landing more clients.

It was low pay at first, but, I stayed patient.

I didn’t care how I looked to others.

All that mattered to me was my goal.

I was hyper-focused.

$15 articles turned into $20.

$20 articles turned into $50.

$50 articles turned into $100

$100 articles turned into $300…

…into $400, $500, and beyond.

One client turned into two.

Two into three.

Three into ten.

And best of all – recurring clients.

Monthly retainers.

From clients all around the world.

While I don’t do much work on Fiverr anymore…

It was the best launchpad into the creator world for me.

To start getting experience.

-Work with real clients.
-Get my feet wet.
-And get paid.

Fiverr helped me expand beyond the platform.

To land bigger clients.

And grow my business.

Nearly 5 years later, I’ve never stopped putting food on the table with my writing.

I’m grateful to say I fully support myself, my wife, and my two little girls (and have for years).

All from digital writing.

It was extremely challenging at first.

Month after month of blood, sweat, and tears.

But, it was so worth it.

Now, it’s your turn.

• Pick your skill.

• Continue mastering it.

• Learn from books/courses every day.

• Practice and apply what you’re learning.

• Fall in love with building on evenings and weekends.

And then put yourself out there with potential clients.

While Fiverr can be a solid place to kickstart your creator journey.

There are plenty of options.

It’s just about taking action.

Getting in a position to land clients.

Actively hunting them down.

And… stacking up reassurance through:

• Samples

• Results

• Testimonials

But, today’s Christmas. 🎄

Enjoy it. :)

I don’t expect you to start applying to Fiverr (or all the other freelance marketplaces today).

But I do expect you to in January! ;)

It was around Christmas 2018 when I first started learning copy.

Such a pivotal time for me. 

This season always reminds me of the early days.

The dreaming.

And the initial steps I took on my journey to full-time.

So, today, my call to action for you is to dream a little.

To dream of that moment you make your first dollar.

When you finally land that first paying client.

Because if you commit yourself to it.

And get better every day.

It.

Will.

Happen.

-Brandon “I was rejected by Upwork seven times” Storey

P.S. I re-applied to Upwork a year later (2020) just to see what would happen.

They accepted me. 

…on the eighth attempt.

I’ve since landed some amazing clients through Upwork…

…and dozens of other methods I’ll share with you soon.

P.P.S. Merry Christmas 🎅

I’ll see you in your inbox in 2024…

And I’ll see you even sooner if you follow me on X.

P.P.P.S. — yes this is my third “P.S.”

Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot more up my sleeve to share with you in the new year:

• Tips to accelerate your copy skills

• Every channel/tactic I’ve used to land clients

• How I cut outreach time down (and generate consistent income) by targeting a specific type of client

• Negotiating tips to level up your earnings

• The tactics I used to generate over $1 million in revenue for clients with email

• How I launched two niche blogs and earn “passive income” every month from them.