Hi, I’m Derek.
I’ve been growing my main business for 19 years. For a long time, I’ve also been building an online side hustle, usually early in the morning before anyone else is up.
This page is the longer version of how that happened, including the parts that didn’t go well.
Looking for a Quick Dollar
When I was a younger entrepreneur, I wanted a side hustle I could do in my spare time to make some extra money.
I tried online surveys. I tried writing video captions. I’d do something for a while, make little or nothing, and lose interest. Each one turned out to be a dead end.
Discovering Affiliate Marketing
While I was in growth mode with my main business, I came across affiliate marketing.
At its core, it was marketing and sales, just done online: running ads, posting on social media, building an email list, creating landing pages and sales pages, and writing automated emails. I realized that if I made it my side hustle, I’d be learning how to sell online, which could also help my main business grow.
What really fascinated me was selling digital products. Someone finds an offer, buys it on a sales page, and gets it instantly by email or download. No truck, no shipping, no long sales conversations. In my main business, selling takes time and a lot of personal communication. This was a completely different process, and I wanted to understand how it worked. Like a lot of people, I was drawn to the idea of making money while I slept.
The Years of Dabbling
The reality was harder.
I promoted products for a few companies and got almost no clicks. I read a book that made online advertising sound simple, learned how to set up the ads, spent about $500, and made $0. I remember wondering what part of the story the book had left out.
I bought The Iceberg Effect, which helped me understand how an online business actually fits together. But even then, I kept dabbling. I’d build some emails, try a page, test a product, get stuck, and try something else.
I also didn’t tell my family much. I was sure that if I told people what I was doing, they’d think it was a waste of time. So I kept telling myself, “I’ll tell everyone when it works.”
I wasn’t making money from my side hustle. But I was learning, and a lot of it helped my main business. That’s a big part of why I didn’t quit.
Deciding to Get Real Help
In 2023, I got tired of trying to figure it out in pieces. I joined a coaching and mentorship program, which I’m still part of today. It’s also where I get the tools I use to run everything: my website, email system, and page builder.
That decision wasn’t easy. Paying for help felt like admitting I couldn’t figure it out myself.
Early on, I showed my mentor a blog and opt-in page I’d spent hours building. I was proud of it. His feedback was basically: this isn’t going to work, start over.
I rebuilt it. That new version got my first email subscriber and helped lead to my first online sale, and my first dollars from selling digital products.
Building Something I Own
My first real traffic came from Quora. People were reading my answers, visiting my website, and joining my email list.
Then my Quora account got shut down, and that traffic disappeared almost overnight. I also lost all the content I’d written there, which was a huge loss.
But my website was still there. My email list was still there. Everything I’d built on my own was still mine.
That experience changed how I think about building a business online. My website and email list are mine to control. On social media, an account can be shut down without warning or explanation, even after contacting customer service multiple times, and everything on it is gone immediately. I’ve since heard the same story from other entrepreneur friends.
Where I Am Now
Today, I’m working on the hardest part for me: traffic. I moved to TikTok and have been learning the platform from the ground up, testing videos, studying what people respond to, and adjusting. I’m on the road to 1,000 followers, and I share what I try and what happens along the way.
I’m not a guru, and I haven’t figured everything out. But after all the trial and error, I’m convinced that building an online business, even as a side hustle, is one of the best ways to earn extra income: something of your own that you can work on, grow, and keep building. The marketing, communication, and sales skills I’ve learned apply far beyond digital products.
Why This Site Exists
BusinessBuildingOnline.com is where I document the journey honestly, while I’m still in it.
If you’re trying to build something of your own and feel stuck, I hope what I’ve been through, and the resources that helped me, make your path a little clearer. And if there’s one thing I wish I’d learned sooner, it’s this: you don’t have to figure it all out alone.
Where to Go From Here
If you’re just getting started, the best first step is the free training that helped me understand how an online business fits together. It’s from my mentor, Dean Holland, and it’s designed for beginners.