2 questions you must answer to make huge money online
When I started out as a content creator, I was all over the place.
I wrote articles touching on everything from the stock market to award show odds to ice hockey to Brazilian election probabilities.
A lot of these pieces were what I call “entertainment content”.
Now they’re fun to write, but entertainment stuff is low-tier content in terms of earning actual money.
That’s because they usually have:
- A finite lifespan
- A relatively small potential audience
The reality is that it’s hard to make money online if you aren’t laser-focused on answering at least one of two very specific questions.
Allow me to walk you through those now.
Question 1
People who are online for reasons other than scrolling Instagram reels like a zombie are usually in search of a specific answer to a question.
Ergo, if you want to make real money online, you must be able to respond to the following:
Can you answer this question?
Before you choose whether or not to create a piece of content that answers someone’s question, you should consider the earning power of your answer.
You can’t just be out there answering questions all willy-nilly if you want to make real money.
You need to be answering questions being asked by a lot of people over a long period of time.
For example, I currently drive a Honda CRV and needed to reset the oil life indicator.
Honda is one of the most popular car brands and it isn’t obvious how to reset the oil indicator if, say, the guy at your local quick oil change place doesn’t know how to do it.
So I searched on YouTube and, lo and behold, there are several videos with 40,000+ views explaining this simple task.
By contrast, if I publish a piece of content where I just talk about last night’s hockey game, there are a ton of problems:
- People are going to stop caring about last night’s hockey game by tomorrow
- Hockey is a niche sport with a limited audience (and it pains me to say that as both a Canadian and a hockey player)
- Knowing what happened in last night’s hockey game brings limited value to most people’s lives
Just because a video gets a lot of views, it doesn’t mean it’s making all that much money, however. You ideally want to be answering questions in niches that pay you handsomely for your time.
Now there are certainly some niche creators who do OK talking about hockey, but if your goal is to make HUGE money online — I’m talking millions, not hundreds of thousands — you’re going to need to expand beyond your own personal interests and answer questions that are of interest to a massive number of people.
Question considerations
Have you ever wondered what the best brand of equestrian helmet is?
Me neither!
That’s because equestrian is a boutique sport for rich people. As a result, there is a very limited number of people who are in the market for an equestrian helmet.
Again, you need to consider whether it’s even worth your time to be answering any particular question.
(Before we go any further, I should probably point out that equestrian is competitive horse jumping).
The problem with becoming an expert in a boutique sport for rich people is that your potential audience is relatively tiny compared to say, people who are interested in making money online (my main audience).
Question 2
The second question you must be prepared to answer if you want to make huge money online is this:
How do I solve this problem?
Now there are lots of problems out there and lots of potential answers, but you should be drawing on expertise you actually have in a niche where you can be credible. People will see through a phony right away.
If this problem is universal, all the better.
Short on ideas? The best way to get some is to mine your own life for issues to help people with.
Are you learning art and finally figured out a way to properly draw ears?
Were you out of shape and figured out a diet that helped you get back to your ideal weight?
Were you broke and you discovered a way to make money on the side and take some pressure off your monthly bills?
Make a video about it!
A secret key to success in the content game
There’s a reason make money online content is so ubiquitous here and on YouTube.
Look at your own life. Wouldn’t you love to make more money?
Who wouldn’t?
In fact, there are 3 things pretty much all human beings want.
And “all human beings” is a pretty big audience.
Those 3 desires are:
- Health
- Wealth
- Relationships
That’s why YouTube creators in these areas make a lot more money relative to someone operating, say, a gaming or sports channel.
Here’s an example from my journey.
I’ve been monetized on YouTube for about a week, and the following video has BY FAR the biggest RPM (or revenue per 1,000 views) of anything I’ve published:
That’s why I’ll soon be shifting more of my efforts to stock market content versus the make money online videos I’ve been specializing in.
Where to start
If you’re thinking about getting into the content game and don’t know where to start, consider a sub-niche in one of those three areas where you have knowledge to offer.
Think about problems you’ve faced in your own life and how you solved them.
My foot in the door in the health niche on this platform was talking about how I quit caffeine and alcohol.
My foot in the door in the wealth niche on YouTube was teaching people how to make money on this platform.
One final note on ethics: At the end of the day, your online work shouldn’t be solely about making money.
If you’re just a sleazy scammer looking to get rich quick by tricking people out of their money with lies and false knowledge, this probably isn’t the article for you.
But if you’re interested in making money while also walking away knowing you helped someone out, I hope you got something useful out of it.
If so, please let me know in the comments!