Make Money Online: Find the Perfect Digital Product Idea (and Create it!) in Minutes
Intro
Follow along with the recorded workshop, or the step-by-step tutorial below!
What Do *I* Have to Offer?
A LOT. Seriously. And probably so much more than you realize!
But it can sometimes be really hard to see it for ourselves.
It could be because of our emotions or memories around it, because we want to go a new direction, because we just aren’t sure… there are so many mental traps that can stop us before we even get started.
Or, it could be a skill you have that you don’t realize many others would love to learn.
Or, maybe you have so many interests and abilities it’s hard to choose!
Getting Started at All is More Important Than What You Choose
Entrepreneurship is a journey. Where you begin doesn’t have to be – and usually isn’t – where you want to go.
I got started offering freelance services copywriting. Did I want to be a writer? Nope!
But I know I’m good at writing, and I also know lots of people don’t want or like to write either.
I took some time to learn basic marketing and copywriting principles, and then ‘hung my shingle’ on some freelancing platforms.
How Do You Get Clients With No Experience?
It’s not just about the skill.
Don’t get me wrong, you do need to deliver on whatever you promised.
But along the way, you need to give your client confidence that you can, that their needs will be heard, their problem solved such that their problem is solved and they feel their money was well spent.
When I got nibbles from potential clients, I would tell them about the writing experience that I did have (that wasn’t copywriting), and then offer to do a review of their website home page where I would give my suggestions for improvement along with my reasoning (aka the marketing principles behind my recommendation).
This way they can experience what it’s like to work with me, and the quality of my work at no risk to them.
I would review their home page like a detective, making sure everything on it was accurate and working.
Inevitably I would find basic improvements like typos and grammatical errors that needed to be corrected.
I would call every phone number they had listed, and click on every link. Surprisingly, I often found broken links and wrong phone numbers, like contact numbers going to fax machines.
I would also point out things that were well done, because even if I’m helping with the things that I’m finding, no one really wants to be handed a list of problems, right?!?
At this point, I’ve got their attention and given them value by helping them improve their home page, regardless of what copywriting they may have been interested in hiring me for.
More importantly, they are already agreeing to make the changes that I’m recommending. We are already working together to help their online presence.
Only then would I give them my list of suggested improvements in the copy, along with the marketing principles – the ‘why’.
If they are familiar with them, then they know that I know what I’m doing. If they aren’t, then they will learn something even as I’m demonstrating my expertise.
Every single one of them hired me.
Was it extra, unpaid work? You might look at it that way. I saw it as me marketing my business.
With each job, I had another example for my portfolio, along with a reference. After I had a handful of copywriting jobs under my belt, I didn’t need to do the home page audits anymore.
The first client, the first sale, the first anything – going from zero to one is the hardest, but it does get easier!
Choosing Your (First) Offer
Ready? Let’s do this!
First, go here to get the workbook.
Take Inventory of What You’ve Got
If you’re coming from the position of I-want-to-do-something or even anything- but now what? The first step is taking an inventory of what do you know, what can you do, what do people ask you for help with, or what are your interests.
This is free-form brainstorming time, so open up the workbook and write down anything and everything that comes to mind.
Next, pick the one that excites you the most right now. Not sure? Choose up to three. {Psst – The next section will help you narrow it down to one if you really can’t decide!}
What Do People Ask About This Topic?
This research is how you find what real people want help with – you don’t have to guess!
Once you identify what questions are they asking (the problem), if you can answer the question then *this* – your solution – is the lead magnet topic.
Where do people go to get answers? Google! And YouTube, which is also owned by Google. You can apply the following method using either one:
Autofill Topic Research
In the workshop replay, you’ll see that we used the example of Canva. If you type ‘Canva’ into Google, here’s what shows up in the autofill dropdown:
Google is trying to help you by providing suggestions from the most commonly used queries it receives from users.
Meaning, what people are searching for the most about the topic ‘Canva’.
Not everything autofill suggests will be useful as a lead magnet idea – like ‘canva login’, but this does show you something as basic as finding the login page is something new Canva users need help with.
‘Canva AI’ is a great topic – AI is a super hot trend and Canva is a very popular design tool.
If you feel like you don’t have any skills, you can open a free Canva account, work through their tutorials and quickly become an expert.
The best part is, you don’t have to be an expert before you start making offers to help other people learn how to master Canva’s AI tools. And you shouldn’t try to – Canva, like most things, is always evolving.
Learn one thing, then teach it. Or offer that service. One thing is enough to get started.
Then, learn another thing, then offer that service or teach it. Repeat as needed.
You have what it takes, I promise!
Write down the useful keywords from autofill into your workbook.
Discover What People Really Want to Know
Yes, ‘Canva AI’ is still a broad category within Canva. How do you narrow it down to that one thing to start with?
Autofill! Now you’re going to add the letter ‘a’ after ‘Canva’ and see what Google autofill shows you:
Now we’re seeing more specifics of what people are searching for help with:
Canva AI generator sounds good, but then you can see from what follows that it’s still pretty general.
Canva AI image, Canva AI logo generator, Canva AI video generator, Canva AI photo generator are all very specific and different uses of AI for Canva are all great topics to note in your workbook.
Now, you could actually jump to Canva right now and dive in, based on what you’ve found. If you’re a super action taker, go for it! {Pro tip: imperfect action beats overthinking every time!}
If you’re not sure, if you couldn’t decide from your skill inventory exactly which one you wanted to start with so you narrowed it down to two or three, you may want to continue this exercise in your workbook to get a better idea of the possibilities for each topic so you can compare them.
Simply repeat this using every letter of the alphabet – ‘Canva b’, ‘Canva c’, etc.
By the time you get to Z, you’ll have TONS of great ideas – that real people need help with!
Focus on One Thing
You started with no ideas and now you have pages and pages of them – YAY! But how to choose?
You probably notice on each page in your workbook, the bottom section prompts you to sort the topics you picked from the autofill suggestions by how long or difficult the answer is.
If you haven’t done it yet, go back through your workbook and sort the topics for each page by level of difficulty.
Choose Your Lead Magnet Topic
Now, just look at the easy/short ones. Find the easiest one and boom – you have your first lead magnet topic.
Some of them are super-duper simple. Like a three-word answer or a simple image would do.
That’s ok! A lead magnet doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) huge or complex.
Put yourself in the shoes of the person doing the search. They have one question, and all they want is the answer.
Create Your First Lead Magnet
There are all kinds of lead magnets, but not every kind makes sense for every topic.
Choose a Framework
Need help? On the Pick the Framework page in your workbook you’ll find tons of lead magnet formats.
Choose the simplest one that best fits the information you want to convey. Remember, it’s most likely that the easier it is for you to make, the easier it is for your customer to use. Don’t overcomplicate it!
Create Your Lead Magnet with Pagewheel
Creating lead magnets to build your list is the heart and soul of Pagewheel.
Need help with any of the steps? We’ve got tutorials for every step in our Knowledge Base.
Try it first though – it walks you through it (and it’s fun)!
Follow the workflow and you can have a lead magnet, opt-in page, delivery page, and delivery email all set up and ready to go – in minutes!
Now What?
It’s time to promote it! Don’t worry, we’ve got your back – with Pagewheel Copy Packs!
Create a content plan AND the content – let Rachel show you how she does it (and how she’s help hundreds of people build 7-figure businesses following her strategy!)
Take It Further
Use your Pagewheel skills to build a business helping others grow theirs!
Lots of business owners struggle with their email marketing or outsource it for other reasons; either way, there’s definitely a demand!
There are two ways Pagewheel can help you provide this service:
- Offer services as a freelancer, either as an email specialist, or offer these products and services too.
- Build an agency by offering services AND managing Pagewheel accounts for clients. {Psst – our Enterprise Plan includes Agency School – where we show you how to launch your agency and start getting clients!}
More Resources
- Grab the Lead Magnet Workbook or the entire share funnel!
- See how others are using Pagewheel to grow their businesses and get the scoop on new features when you join our Facebook group.
- Become an affiliate, share the Pagewheel love and add a new revenue stream!
