Staying Paid

The College Student’s Guide To Staying Paid, Part One: First Steps

Posted on May 22nd, 2008 in General Business, College, Digital Products, Direct Cash, entrepreneurship, Making Money Online, Newbie Articles, Product Creation, Sample Lessons, Staying Paid

The transition from high school to college is both awesome and scary at the same time. I know because I decided to leave everyone and everything and trek 700 some odd miles up the road to Rolla, Missouri and jump head-first into this college thing. Looking back, I wish I had stayed in state — much, much cheaper, but I wouldn’t of had the same opportunities to screw up and search for Solution Z. I see a lot of people hunting for how to make extra money while in school, so I figure I would throw my post into the fray, Staying Paid style. Here we go.

It’s All About Cash and Value, Preferably Direct

Welcome to the entrepreneur club. It’s addicting, and the good news is that you can work it in around the rest of your school activities, but let’s not forget that lazy summer you’re going to spend packing for school in the fall. If you have some leverage in the financial department (aka, your parental units aren’t super-uptight about you getting a job, or the job that you have doesn’t consume your entire day), this is even better. I wish I had spent my first summer doing this.

Direct cash is the name of the game, new entrepreneur-san. You must seize the value you have locked inside your happy academic heart and unleash it against the community at large. I think that the best way to do this, Web 2.0 style, is to have a twitter account, and to find forums that bring you against groups that are looking for value-givers. You know, like marketers. We love hiring people that make our life easier.

Direct cash is a fancy word for “money that comes to you RIGHT NOW instead of on the 1st and 16th.” I could set up a small report on Staying Paid for example, similar to the one you’re reading now. I could title it, “How I Made $450 with Just One Email” (yes, I actually did!), package it up into a PDF file and sell it for say, $20 on the site. That $20 is coming straight to me, from the payment processor - think PayPal for now. There are others, but 98% of the direct cash methods you’ll run into will revolve around using PayPal.

For those of you just coming into the game, I do not suggest checks. I accepted checks because I thought I had to accept checks. I would never accept a personal check, and I’m hard pressed to accept checks from just any company. Unless you happen to be ClickBank, a company that provides a built in affiliate program that cuts you a check when people buy products through you. I will gladly accept checks from them!

So, let’s get back to our Direct Cash Model. We like reports. As you wade through the waters of making money online, I guarantee you that you will like reports too. You don’t even have to be a writing superstar to create a good report, I bet you have a few hiding that you just weren’t aware of:

• your dad, who is a whiz at carving wooden figurines
• your mom, who cleaned up that yard sale dresser and restored the wood
• your brother, who became an air traffic controller
• your cousin Janet, who is a real life extra in movies that come through the area
• your old boss, who likes to do Civil War reenactments on the cheap
• your aunt Tina, who always managed to sell out every yard sale she’s done
• your uncle George, who can always get the best seat in the house, the best room in the hotel, the best food in the restaurant…
• your friend Nick, who can diagnose any car problem just by listening to the car for a while
• your coworker Gina, who speaks fluent Spanish

I’m sure you get the idea. The reason why these people have such interesting reports crammed in them is that they represent in real life what people are craving to do. In short, each person has a skill they’re good at that ultimately matches up to a niche. Don’t be afraid of that word — it’s just a fancier term for “a market filled with buyers and spectators alike who spend money on a specific Solution”. As an entrepreneur, your job is to deliver Solution Z, the fix that’s going to make them happy and keep them buying.

So we’re back to my fictional report, selling for $20. Before we get too happy, let’s look at the “biters”, what’s going to eat at our happy little revenue:

• PayPal Fees. PayPal charges 2.9% + $0.30 on each and every transaction - a fee that they hit the seller with, not the buyer. So in our $20 example, you need to subtract out $0.88. In other words, it’s like writing a check to PayPal everytime you get paid.
• Domain Registration - This is a one-time “biter”. Pick a domain name. I’ll just use mine, StayingPaid.com - my domain name ran about $9. You can pick up a great domain at NameCheap. They’re a domain registrar - they sell domain names, you buy them. Nuff said.
• Hosting. Reports are data, and data costs money to upload/download. I personally recommend HostGator. It’s $7.95/mo, and will give you a solid foundation that you can build a great online business from. Free hosting just doesn’t cut it for business; save the free hosts for your Las Vegas vacation photos, if you can’t part with a free host.

What does that do to our profit line? Well, let’s just say that your little report takes off and the first month you sell 20 copies. Revenue wise, you’re looking at $400. You actually take home a net profit of $380.15. Let’s take a look at how we got to this point, shall we?

• Gave PayPal their cut (this happens automatically once someone purchases the report) - $11.90
• Hosting got their cut, too - $7.95
• Domain Name - $9.00
• Total Expenses: $28.85

So, right under $30, and you still walk home with $371.15 from this short report. This is only taking into account 20 copies. Also, this is merely an outline — remember, these are your first steps. I want these concepts to soak in your brain for a moment - you think you think this way already, but trying to sell is completely different from most activities you do in school. In fact, I dare say that school is one of the worst places to learn how to sell.

Next step, we’ll take our sample guide and show you how to actually get traffic to it. Stay tuned, we’ll get you on the right path to staying paid!