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How to make $100,000 online as an academic: (a proven ten-step process that worked for me and will work for you too)
Step 1: The Mindset If you want to make money online, the first and most important thing is to develop the right mindset. If you don’t have the right mindset, nothing will work, and you will feel frustrated. Naval said, “understand that ethical creation of wealth is possible.” You can make money ethically and without exploiting anyone. If your first reaction to this is, “Oh, I don’t money,” or “Money can’t buy happiness,” this post is not for you. This will be one of the biggest mind-shifts of your life. It won’t be easy. Once you have developed this mindset, forget about making money. It seems counterintuitive but it will make sense by the end of this post.
Step 2: Use Your Expertise If you have a PhD, you are an expert. You know about a certain field than millions of people on earth. Don’t be modest about it. You don’t have to brag about it. But you don’t have to be modest about it either. Lean into it. Promise yourself you won’t indulge in any self-deprecation.
Step 3: Pick a Social Media Platform Pick a text-based social media platform like Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Facebook. If you have a PhD, you have already done a decent amount of writing. You can also choose a video-based platform like YouTube or TikTok if you are good in front of the camera and know a little bit of video editing.
Step 4: Start Posting Go to Quora and create a profile. On Quora, people post all sorts of questions, and anyone can answer them. (YouTube comment section is also a useful source for finding questions although it may take a bit of time.) Look for questions related to your field that you can answer. Take those questions as prompts and write their answers. Your answers must be written in easy and accessible language. No academic jargon, no abbreviations. Think as if you are explaining a complex topic to a five-year-old. But don’t patronize. Simplifying complex topics and making them understandable to non-specialists is one of most valuable skills in today’s world. Take your writeup and post it on the social media platform of your choice. Do this every day. Pick a question, write a considered response, and post it on social media. This will be the hardest part of it all. But you must do it. Don’t make excuses, don’t procrastinate, don’t sit around perfecting sentences. Write as much as you and as quickly as you can. A misspelled sentence that people read is always better than a perfectly constructed sentence that no one reads. Try your best to be consistent, but if you miss a day, don’t worry about it. Life happens. Move on. You will have to be generous and exacting with yourself at the same time.
Step 5: Build an Audience If you keep posting consistently, people will start following you. Develop a professional-looking profile. Put up nice headshot, write a clear and precise bio. Anyone landing on your profile should immediately get to know what you post about. Treat social media like a big classroom. Use the same language on social media that you will in a classroom or a meeting. Don’t swear. Don’t be crass. Don’t post random memes, photos, or jokes. These are distractions both for you and your audience. Don’t condescend to or patronize others. Treat everyone as potential client. But engage only with people who like your content. If anyone trashes your content, simply block them. “Engaging in a dialog” may seem tempting. Don’t do it. Don’t reply, don’t try to convince them. You will make exactly $0 even if you are able to convince someone successfully.
Step 6: Listen to Your Audience If you keep writing consistently for 6-12 months, you will be able to build a decent audience online. Pay attention to what people in your audience are saying, what kind of concerns they have, and what kind of problem they are facing. For example, here is a problem that teachers all over the world are facing: how to reimagine written assignments in the age of AI. Think about how you can solve problems of your audience. Create solutions for those problems. Don’t underestimate any problem even if the solution seems self-evident to you. It may not be self-evident to your audience. Prepare a small guide on how to solve a problem someone is facing. It can be a PDF or a PowerPoint presentation. Or get them on a video call and show them how to solve that problem. Don’t ask for money. Focus on serving your community. Instead of money, ask them to write you a testimonial. Gather 10-20 testimonials. Soon you will figure out things you like to do, things that people need, and things that make money.
Step 7: Build an Email List and a (Basic) Website If you start online regularly, within the first 1-2 months, start an email list. You can get started for free on Kit and can have as many as 10,000 subscribers for free. Ask people in your online audience to join your email list. This will be a fraction of total online audience. But this is the most important part of your audience. Create solutions for your audiences’ problems. Post them on social media. If your post does well, write a detailed version of it and send it to people on your email list. Also, build a basic website within the first 1-2 months. You can build one using Carrd. It’s very easy to set up. Assume you have a product or a service to sell and design it accordingly. Don’t spend money on hiring someone to do it for you. This may seem premature but it’s not.
Step 8: Figure Out How to Receive Money Imagine someone wants to buy something from you. They are willing to pay you whatever price you want. How will you receive money? Within the first two months, open an account on Stripe or Mercury. Connect your Stripe (or whatever account you have) to your Carrd website. If someone lands on your website, they should be able to make a payment without any friction. Put everything in place and test it out. You can also request your partner/friends to “buy” from your website to see everything is in order. Steps 5,6,7, and 8 do not have to follow a strict chronological order. You can start doing these things together.
Step 9: Build a Product/Offer a Paid Service Set these things in motion and keep posting regularly online for the next six months. Keep listening to your audience. Keep preparing solutions to their problems. In the next six months, you will get a decent number of people to be on your email list. Tell people on your email list and your social media audience that you are building a product/service that will offer a solution to their problems. Make a waitlist and ask them to join if they are interested. A small number of people will join the waitlist. Prepare a PDF or a PowerPoint presentation or a video that offers a solution to one of their problems. Put it up on your Carrd website and tell people on your waitlist that they can buy your product. If you are dealing with a problem that requires consultation, offer them a paid consultation session. Price your product/service at the level that you won’t mind paying if someone offered it to you. In the beginning, it may be a good idea to offer it for as low as $9. If you have executed the above steps correctly and patiently, people will buy your product/service. If they do, ask them to give you feedback. Don’t take critical comments personally. Someone who buys your product/service and gives you feedback is doing you a great favor. Pay attention to the feedback and incorporate it to make your product/service better.
Step 10: Promote Your Product/Service As soon as you make your first sale, put a link to the product/service in your social media bios. Pin a testimonial about your product/service to your profile. If you write consistently on social media, some of your posts are bound to go viral. As soon as you seen one of your posts doing numbers, plug your product/service under it. Your viral post will introduce your product/service to new audiences. Many of them will buy your product/service. Final words: Be patient. Be sincere. Be honest. Don’t hire a ghostwriter to write for you. Don’t try to take shortcuts. Write every day. Promote your products/services every day. And you will make $100,000 sooner or later. Good luck!