Q: What is the easiest way to win $1000 online? Should I launch a coaching program? Sell ​​affiliate products? Create an Amazon eBook, create a blog, try contextual ads… or just give up and give up? Will listening to the gurus, or buying the best gizmo or gimmick that promises perpetual piles of button wins… without lifting a finger, improve my income?

Do any of these questions sound familiar? In this article we are going to take a quick and easy look at the EXACT step-by-step system I used to earn my first $1000 online in 2007, and why it works EXACTLY the same way today.

Filed Under: I’ll spare you the backstory in order to save space… but suffice it to say, my story probably sounded a lot like yours. I was smart, I was successful in the offline world, and I was trying to turn my love of marketing into a powerful and profitable online business that I could run from home or anywhere in the world… but had surprisingly little success in doing so.

In desperation, after literally investing thousands of dollars in things that didn’t work out, I was inspired to try a new approach and BUILD something that had authentic value to someone in the real world, and just try to get the monetary value back in return.

Essentially the linear marketing method I used was this.

Step 1: Identify a high-value market with a lot of competition (in my case, I went with cosmetic dentistry)

Step 2: Identify a hyper-specific geography where this competition is particularly fierce (I chose Los Angeles, California… and I was living outside of Atlantic City, NJ at the time, so I wasn’t even in the market itself)

Step 3: Register a hyperlocal premium domain name in that market that would have empirical value to a local professional in that area. (in my case, I just chose the name of a highly populated part of LA+ and added cosmetic dentistry)

Step 4 – Create a blog on that domain, with curated content from around the web…using hyperlocal post titles and blog content

Step 5 – Create some links to the site, attach some social media profiles, and do some very generic SEO-style stuff. (note: the landscape is MUCH different today than it was back then, social media is much easier and SEO is actually MUCH less important…so much of this step would be different and easier to do today as well)

Step 6: Find a buyer! In my case, literally… I just posted Craigslist ads in Los Angeles with the name of the site and a live link, for a period of about a week before I got a serious offer. (which was actually several thousand dollars, and included my agreement to do a bunch of back-end servicing behind the sale)

That’s all. There is no special sauce, no secret strategy. BUILD SOMETHING that has value, and then build your own brand, business, and bank account to continue creating value in the marketplace.

In my own practice now as a business coach, whenever I get into a rut…or get tired of a particular strategy, or get frustrated with the state of affairs in the online marketing space, I go back to that place. and build again.

It will work for you, and it will work exactly as described above. You can do it better, faster, and have more fun, or it can take a little longer and instead your first sale may be less. But I promise you this: stick with it and you WILL succeed. (No gimmicks, gimmicks or GURUS required!)