When I first started exploring the idea of building an online side hustle, I wasn’t trying to start a new business.
I was actually trying to improve my existing one.
At the time, I enrolled in an online marketing course because I wanted to learn how to run Facebook ads for my primary business.
What I didn’t expect was that the course would introduce me to an entirely new world.
A world of digital products, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and online businesses.
The idea fascinated me.
Unlike my primary business, where products can be expensive, sales cycles can take weeks or months, and paperwork is often involved, digital products seemed different.
Many of the products were inexpensive.
The delivery process was simple.
And some businesses allowed affiliate marketers to focus almost entirely on marketing and sales while the company handled the product creation, customer service, and fulfillment.
I became obsessed with learning how the whole process worked.
The more I learned, the more I wanted to understand it.
The Problem
As part of the course, I became an affiliate for a supplement company that I was already a customer of.
I knew the products. I believed in them.
And I was excited to create ads, landing pages, email campaigns, and video sales letters based on my own experiences.
By the end of the course, I had learned a tremendous amount.
I knew how to:
- Run Facebook ads
- Build landing pages
- Create video sales letters
- Set up email automations
- Capture leads
- Promote products online
There was just one problem.
I wasn’t making any money.
I spent money on ads.
I spent time building everything.
And after weeks, then months, I had nothing to show for it financially.
Not a single sale.
When I Started Feeling Behind
This was the point where things became frustrating.
I didn’t tell many people what I was doing.
Partly because it felt embarrassing.
I didn’t want someone asking:
“So, how much money have you made?”
Because the answer was:
Nothing.
At least not yet.
And that’s when I started feeling like I was falling behind.
I was working hard.
I was learning.
I was investing time and money.
But the results weren’t showing up.
It felt like everyone else knew something that I didn’t.
What Changed
Instead of quitting, I decided to keep going.
Eventually, I joined a coaching and mentorship program where I could continue learning and promote products I genuinely believed in.
That’s where I was introduced to a concept that completely changed how I viewed online income. This was the framework for how many people make millions of dollars online, and it was really exciting to learn about it.
It’s called The Four Core Areas of Making Money:
- Traffic Generation
- Lead Capture
- Follow-Up
- Product Offers
At first glance, it sounds simple.
But there was one insight that took me a long time to understand.
Every step depends on the step before it.
If you don’t have traffic, you don’t generate leads.
If you don’t generate leads, you don’t build an email list.
If you don’t build an email list, you have nobody to follow up with.
And if you have nobody to follow up with, you won’t sell products.
Looking back, I realized I wasn’t necessarily behind.
I was still learning and building the foundational skills required to make the process work.
The Mistake I Was Making With My Side Hustle
At the beginning, I think I was measuring my progress the wrong way.
Every day I worked on my side hustle and didn’t make money, I felt like a failure.
It felt like I was falling behind.
But what I didn’t appreciate at the time was that income isn’t usually the first thing that grows.
Skills grow first.
Assets grow first.
Systems grow first.
Before I ever made my first dollar online, I had already learned how to run ads, build landing pages, create email sequences, generate leads, and promote products.
At the time, those things felt invisible because they weren’t producing income yet.
Today, I see them differently.
Those weren’t signs that I was falling behind.
They were signs that I was building the foundation that income would eventually be built on.
The frustrating part is that most of that progress happens before the money shows up.
And that’s often where people quit.
Starting Over Again
Eventually, I found traction by creating content on Quora and sharing what I was learning.
People began joining my email list.
I made my first dollar online.
And for the first time, the process started working.
Then Quora shut down my account.
Years of content disappeared.
And I found myself starting over again.
This time on TikTok.
To be honest, there are still days when I feel frustrated.
Days when growth feels slow.
Days when I wonder if I’m missing something.
Days when I question whether I’m making enough progress.
But I’ve also learned something important.
The process works.
The challenge is often sticking with it long enough to master each piece.
What I Realized About Making Money Online
Looking back, I wasn’t falling behind.
I was building skills before I was building income.
That’s a much different thing.
Many people focus almost entirely on how much money they’ve made.
I did too.
But before income can grow, there are usually other things that have to grow first:
- Traffic generation skills
- Content creation skills
- Email marketing skills
- Lead generation systems
- Audiences
- Relationships
- Confidence
- Discipline
- Consistency
Those things are often invisible.
But they matter.
And in many cases, they’re the very things that eventually make income possible.
A Reason For Hope When Building an Online Income
If you’re currently building an online side hustle or just starting out and feeling like you’re falling behind, there’s a good chance you’re measuring yourself the same way I was.
You may be looking only at the money.
The sales.
The commissions.
The income.
But there are often many signs of progress happening behind the scenes before those results show up.
The challenge is learning to recognize them.
Because what feels like failure today may actually be preparation for future success.
Where I Would Start
If you’re interested in building an online side hustle selling digital products and services, one of the resources that had the biggest impact on me early on was a free training video created by my mentor and friend, Dean Holland.
The video explains the framework behind building online income and introduces the same concepts that helped me understand how the process actually works.
It’s designed for beginners, even if you have no experience or products of your own.
You can access the free video below and decide for yourself whether it might help shorten your own learning curve.