- PPF Points
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So, let’s get real for a sec. The internet’s jam-packed with people yelling, “Build your audience! Go viral! Followers are everything!” News flash: That’s a load of crap. Seriously, you don’t need a zillion followers to make money online. Don’t believe me? Stick around.
Rewind to when I was just a broke nobody with exactly zero followers. Nada. No fancy email list, no YouTube channel, nothing remotely “influencer-ish.” All I had was my beat-up laptop, a half-decent WiFi connection, and—honestly?—a borderline desperate need to never see another fluorescent office light panel again.
Now? Pulling in a cool $100 bucks a day online, without ever once going “viral.” (And no, I did not become a crypto guru or sell you a course about dropshipping cat sweaters. Chill.)
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a questionable cup of coffee, and let’s break down exactly how I cracked the code—step-by-messy-step, without the BS.
## The Big Lie (You Don’t Need Followers)
God, if I had a dime for every time some Twitter bro shouted, “Just build an audience, passive income will follow,” I’d already be on a beach somewhere. Here’s the thing: You know what matters way more than follower count? Solving people’s problems.
Here’s what I actually needed to make money online (and you do, too):
That’s it. I made my first $100/day from affiliate stuff, digital products, and letting the internet’s answer-seekers—thank you, Google gods—find my content at their own pace. No TikTok dances required.
Here’s what my income pie looks like (mmm, pie):
| Income Stream | % of Daily Cash |
| ---------------------- | --------------- |
| Affiliate Marketing | 60% |
| Digital Products | 25% |
| Ads on Medium | 10% |
| Email List Offers | 5% |
Not bad for someone whose “influence” was basically my dog and a couple old usernames.
Step 1: Pick a Niche Where Money Flows
First things first, I had to find my people—a.k.a. desperate souls willing to pay for solutions to real problems. What do folks already throw money at online? Not fidget spinners.
After a night or five lost to late night Googling, I landed on three killer criteria:
Landed on—drumroll—side hustles and online tools. Why? Because everyone and their aunt cares about money, especially in a dumpster-fire economy.
Other juicy beginner niches?
Pro tip: Don’t chase shiny trends. Find a deep pond and go fishing.
---
## Step 2: Churn Out Problem-Solving Content
I know you wanna obsess over social media, but ignore the FOMO. I skipped chasing likes, chased Google instead. Here’s the trick: Make stuff that people are lazily searching for already. (Hi there, strangers in need!)
Platforms that do the work for you:
Since my “audience” was my mom, I had to get smart with SEO. I literally sat there and Googled:
My first post? “Top 5 Free Tools to Start a Side Hustle (No Experience Needed)”
I stuffed affiliate links for apps I actually used (Canva, ConvertKit, Jasper). Kept it genuine. Wasn’t sketchy.
And you know what? It only took a couple weeks to start seeing clicks, then commissions.
Secret Sauce: Followers scroll mindlessly. Searchers have credit cards ready.
Step 3: Affiliate Stuff That’s Not Awful
So, let’s talk affiliate marketing—my cash cow.
Did I have followers to push offers to? Ha, nope. Here’s what I did:
### Step One: Actually Join Affiliate Programs
Step Two: Pump Out Real Content
Made blog posts, stacked up side-by-side tool comparisons (“Canva vs. Adobe, ultimate faceoff”), and tossed together idiot-proof walkthroughs.
Example: “How I Use Grammarly to Write Faster Than my ADHD Brain Normally Allows”
All packed with affiliate links, but only for things I swore by.
### Step Three: Stick Those Links All Over
Didn’t just show up and spam a list of links. Nope. I dropped them:
So, yeah, my links were making money while I passed out playing Stardew Valley. Passive income, baby.
Step 4: Medium—My Ugly, Beautiful Little Secret
Medium.com, man. You don’t need a blog, don’t even need skills. Just sign up and write.
Why Medium is totally underrated:
What did I do?
Best win? Wrote a post called “7 Side Hustles You Can Start With Zero Upfront Cost.” It made me $130 in affiliate commissions. In a week.
The cherry on top? Medium also paid me about $30–$50/month just for reads.
Not exactly Lambo money, but—hey—paid for my sushi habit.
Step 5: Freebies (Lead Magnets) to Build an Email List from Nothing
No followers, no problem. You can still start collecting emails. It’s not 2002, you can’t just pop up a subscribe form and expect magic. Here’s my jam:
Made a stupid-simple guide called: “10 Tools to Start Making $100/Day Online”
(Not a Shakespeare title. Got clicks anyway.)
Used ConvertKit (they let you start for free up to 300 subs—no excuses), then scattered this freebie everywhere:
Once a week, I sent out:
This snowballed. More emails = more eyeballs = more clicks = more money. Math checks out.
Step 6: Pinterest—The Evergreen Traffic Factory
You might think Pinterest is just wedding inspo and slow-cooker chili recipes. Wrong.
That thing’s a search engine with ADHD—stuff sticks around for years.
What did I do?
Made super-simple pins using—yep—Canva, linked ’em to my blog posts and lead magnets. Pinned every day like an obsessive raccoon.
Did I go viral? Not at all. But people kept repinning and clicking…forever.
Real Talk: What Actually Mattered
So, here’s the gut punch nobody tells you: Consistency matters more than “hacks.” I wasn’t smarter or luckier, just stubborn and slightly obsessed.
At the end of the day, the formula’s not sexy but it works:
If you want to skip the “build a follower empire” grind and just make some scrappy online income—well, you’ve got the roadmap. Now, go do something weird. The world’s waiting.
No followers? Who cares. Just go get paid.
Rewind to when I was just a broke nobody with exactly zero followers. Nada. No fancy email list, no YouTube channel, nothing remotely “influencer-ish.” All I had was my beat-up laptop, a half-decent WiFi connection, and—honestly?—a borderline desperate need to never see another fluorescent office light panel again.
Now? Pulling in a cool $100 bucks a day online, without ever once going “viral.” (And no, I did not become a crypto guru or sell you a course about dropshipping cat sweaters. Chill.)
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a questionable cup of coffee, and let’s break down exactly how I cracked the code—step-by-messy-step, without the BS.
## The Big Lie (You Don’t Need Followers)
God, if I had a dime for every time some Twitter bro shouted, “Just build an audience, passive income will follow,” I’d already be on a beach somewhere. Here’s the thing: You know what matters way more than follower count? Solving people’s problems.
Here’s what I actually needed to make money online (and you do, too):
- A burning problem people will pay to fix
- A legit solution (something you can sell, duh)
- A dead-simple system to deliver said solution
- Some way to get target eyeballs onto it
That’s it. I made my first $100/day from affiliate stuff, digital products, and letting the internet’s answer-seekers—thank you, Google gods—find my content at their own pace. No TikTok dances required.
Here’s what my income pie looks like (mmm, pie):
| Income Stream | % of Daily Cash |
| ---------------------- | --------------- |
| Affiliate Marketing | 60% |
| Digital Products | 25% |
| Ads on Medium | 10% |
| Email List Offers | 5% |
Not bad for someone whose “influence” was basically my dog and a couple old usernames.
Step 1: Pick a Niche Where Money Flows
First things first, I had to find my people—a.k.a. desperate souls willing to pay for solutions to real problems. What do folks already throw money at online? Not fidget spinners.
After a night or five lost to late night Googling, I landed on three killer criteria:
- Evergreen demand (won’t disappear next month)
- People search it up all the time
- You can sling affiliate stuff there easily
Landed on—drumroll—side hustles and online tools. Why? Because everyone and their aunt cares about money, especially in a dumpster-fire economy.
Other juicy beginner niches?
- Personal finance (no one likes being broke, go figure)
- Making life easier (productivity, hacks)
- Health & wellness (yoga-mom goldmine)
- Tech and app reviews (everyone’s an “expert” now)
- Study hacks/language learning (students are walking exhaustion)
Pro tip: Don’t chase shiny trends. Find a deep pond and go fishing.
---
## Step 2: Churn Out Problem-Solving Content
I know you wanna obsess over social media, but ignore the FOMO. I skipped chasing likes, chased Google instead. Here’s the trick: Make stuff that people are lazily searching for already. (Hi there, strangers in need!)
Platforms that do the work for you:
- Medium (blogging for lazy people)
- Pinterest (Google with pictures)
- YouTube (where Gen Z learns everything)
- Reddit/Quora (nerd goldmines)
Since my “audience” was my mom, I had to get smart with SEO. I literally sat there and Googled:
- “What would a broke college kid ask?”
- “What tools do noobs use to make side cash?”
- “Why do I suck at productivity, and how do I fix it?”
My first post? “Top 5 Free Tools to Start a Side Hustle (No Experience Needed)”
I stuffed affiliate links for apps I actually used (Canva, ConvertKit, Jasper). Kept it genuine. Wasn’t sketchy.
And you know what? It only took a couple weeks to start seeing clicks, then commissions.
Secret Sauce: Followers scroll mindlessly. Searchers have credit cards ready.
Step 3: Affiliate Stuff That’s Not Awful
So, let’s talk affiliate marketing—my cash cow.
Did I have followers to push offers to? Ha, nope. Here’s what I did:
### Step One: Actually Join Affiliate Programs
- Canva (who isn’t making graphics for something, right?)
- Grammarly (I write like a yellow lab without it)
- Impact.com (basically a buffet of affiliate stuff)
- Amazon Associates (for when you can’t think of anything creative)
Step Two: Pump Out Real Content
Made blog posts, stacked up side-by-side tool comparisons (“Canva vs. Adobe, ultimate faceoff”), and tossed together idiot-proof walkthroughs.
Example: “How I Use Grammarly to Write Faster Than my ADHD Brain Normally Allows”
All packed with affiliate links, but only for things I swore by.
### Step Three: Stick Those Links All Over
Didn’t just show up and spam a list of links. Nope. I dropped them:
- Inside legit blog posts
- Below videos (where people actually look)
- Right in Pinterest pins
- Inside freebie checklists or guides
So, yeah, my links were making money while I passed out playing Stardew Valley. Passive income, baby.
Step 4: Medium—My Ugly, Beautiful Little Secret
Medium.com, man. You don’t need a blog, don’t even need skills. Just sign up and write.
Why Medium is totally underrated:
- It ranks on Google faster than your old Blogspot site ever would
- No coding, no fancy themes, just words
- The Partner Program actually throws you some cash for popular posts
What did I do?
- Blasted out 3, sometimes 4 posts every week (eyes burning, brain fried, caffeine on deck)
- Hammered side hustle and tech tool guides
- Used “click-me-now” headlines and hit all the SEO must-haves
- Snuck in affiliate links where it made sense (not every other sentence, jeez)
Best win? Wrote a post called “7 Side Hustles You Can Start With Zero Upfront Cost.” It made me $130 in affiliate commissions. In a week.
The cherry on top? Medium also paid me about $30–$50/month just for reads.
Not exactly Lambo money, but—hey—paid for my sushi habit.
Step 5: Freebies (Lead Magnets) to Build an Email List from Nothing
No followers, no problem. You can still start collecting emails. It’s not 2002, you can’t just pop up a subscribe form and expect magic. Here’s my jam:
Made a stupid-simple guide called: “10 Tools to Start Making $100/Day Online”
(Not a Shakespeare title. Got clicks anyway.)
Used ConvertKit (they let you start for free up to 300 subs—no excuses), then scattered this freebie everywhere:
- Blog post footers (“P.S. Grab this free cheat sheet!”)
- Pinterest pins (with bold, ugly text)
- Quora answers (when it didn’t feel spammy)
- Reddit (same, but only if you’re really helping)
Once a week, I sent out:
- A new blog post link (because Google will not promote itself, apparently)
- Cool tools or app deals
- Random affiliate offers with FOMO attached
This snowballed. More emails = more eyeballs = more clicks = more money. Math checks out.
Step 6: Pinterest—The Evergreen Traffic Factory
You might think Pinterest is just wedding inspo and slow-cooker chili recipes. Wrong.
That thing’s a search engine with ADHD—stuff sticks around for years.
What did I do?
Made super-simple pins using—yep—Canva, linked ’em to my blog posts and lead magnets. Pinned every day like an obsessive raccoon.
Did I go viral? Not at all. But people kept repinning and clicking…forever.
Real Talk: What Actually Mattered
So, here’s the gut punch nobody tells you: Consistency matters more than “hacks.” I wasn’t smarter or luckier, just stubborn and slightly obsessed.
- I posted even when I thought it sucked.
- I added value without screaming BUY THIS NOW in all caps.
- And I just kept ruthlessly recycling stuff that worked.
At the end of the day, the formula’s not sexy but it works:
- Pick a cash-flowing niche
- Answer burning questions in searchable content
- Plug in affiliate offers naturally
- Build an email list, one dorky freebie at a time
- Use platforms (Medium, Pinterest, etc.) that generate free, ongoing traffic
If you want to skip the “build a follower empire” grind and just make some scrappy online income—well, you’ve got the roadmap. Now, go do something weird. The world’s waiting.
No followers? Who cares. Just go get paid.