Written by Wendy Scott on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)
I do.
If you recognize the reference to the Frank Sinatra/Celeste Holm song from the 1956 film, High Society, you are probably a Boomer like me. So what business does a fifty-nine-year-old have wanting to be a digital anything, let alone a digital millionaire?
I didn’t grow up with tech. We didn’t even have a landline at home. I took my ‘O’ Levels in 1978, which was the first year in the UK we were allowed to take calculators into exams. I struggle with tech, and I say ‘interweb’ to annoy the kids.
But what I do have is at least forty years of leadership and learning & development knowledge that I can share online. And technology has made it possible for me to make money doing that.
What the heck is a digital millionaire?
Otherwise known as a digital entrepreneur or content creator, it’s someone who sells digital products online such as templates, books, or courses. It’s also possible to sell membership newsletters, coaching, and exclusive coaching groups called masterminds.
How it all works
I’ve spent the last eighteen months reading, doing courses, and attending webinars to find out how to be a content creator, and as far as I can tell, this is what digital millionaires do:
Step One – Create online content – whether you create a blog, an Instagram post, a podcast, or articles, put free content online.
I write articles on Medium, a writing platform anyone can post on. When people read an article, the author gets a small amount of the reader’s membership fee.
Medium writers share articles on FB, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, and Pinterest.
Step Two – Collect email addresses – Followers on Instagram or other social media are useful, but you’d have to start again if the platform disappears. The trick is to collect the email addresses of people that like your work. The list can’t disappear overnight, and you use the list to send newsletters and sell your products.
I’ve just started an email newsletter that goes out weekly and contains free links to my training, leadership and dating articles.
It’s said that successful online creators make one dollar a month income from each email subscriber.
I’m using convertkit for my list; They provide helpful resources, such as an online creator community, online tutorials, and live zoom tutorials.
Step Three – Give free content to your email list – Email your list once a week and give them valuable content for free. Content could be an article in the body of the email, sources you have found helpful, book recommendations, templates, short email courses, short video courses, or access to an exclusive podcast episode.
Step Four – Sell your content via your email list – You can sell templates, ebooks, and courses. I’ve seen online courses from $29 US to $3000 US, and some big earners sell masterminds for $10,000 US per year.
Currently, I’m writing an ebook and a course which will be my first digital products.
I use Atticus for my book, Teachable to create my course, and Canva to create the slides and workbooks.
Next tech on the list
A subscription to Later to automatically schedule my posts on social media.
I also use a writing assistant called Jasper.ai and a note-taking tool called RoamResearch.
How I’m finding all the tech
I believe in a growth mindset, so after the screaming, tears, and tech-induced lie-downs with a nice cup of tea, I persevere. Google is my friend. I’m learning very slowly, but each gain I make is a small step forward.
The upside is that I’m enjoying myself while learning about a whole new world. The downside is that none of my friends can understand what I’m talking about and think I’m getting mixed up in an online pyramid scheme scam.
Am I a Digital Millionaire yet?
No. I’ve made a loss with the subscriptions to tech and courses I’ve taken. But I’m having fun, learning heaps, and keeping current with new tech.
And you never know, this time next year I could be a millionaire…
Digital Millionaires I follow: Denise Duffield-Thomas, Jeff Walker, Amy Porterfield, Marie Forleo, and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.
Movers and Shakers on Medium: Tim Denning, Zulie Rane, Ayodeji Awosika, Tom Kueglar, Sean Kearnan, Nicolas Cole, Sinem Gunel.