Profitable in Pajamas: Starting a Digital Business in 2024

If you spend any time on social media (doesn’t matter which platform), you’ve probably noticed that there’s a TON of content being created about how to make money online in some way, shape or form.

I’ve been in the digital space since 2003, and since that time, I’ve watched social media and online business go from a few people actually making money, to a sea of people making money talking about how they make money online.

And for a lot of those people, that’s all it is…talk.

The digital space has changed so much in the last 20+ years, it’s crazy.

I remember when you could start out on Facebook and actually have people see what you were posting, without having to spend money. Pinterest was much easier to make headway in. There were more tools to help you spread your content as well, and those tools were inexpensive to use.

Ahh…good times.

But that all changed in 2013 when the Almighty Facebook drastically reduced our reach. We then had to start paying for the people that we brought to their platform, to see what we were posting on our business pages.

There are a lot of people who will tell you that starting a digital business is the way to go in 2024, and as a card carrying digital business junkie, I would have to agree.

When it comes to writing content with the intention of selling that content, it’s become more and more difficult to get your foot in the door. With every man, woman and child creating God knows how much content hoping for virality, it’s unrealistic to simply expect that your content is going to make any kind of headway with one or two products.

That said, I’m about to burst the bubble of anyone who expects to start a digital business thinking that it’s going to be a cakewalk.

It’s anything but.

Don’t get me wrong, once you create products that you can sell over and over, you’ll feel like you’re literally printing money, and THAT is a great feeling! 🙂

BUT…I should also say that if it’s your passion to start a business that’s based on creating and selling digital content (and that’s exactly what a digital business is), it should be in a niche that you’re passionate about.

I’m passionate about digital business. Whether that’s digital product creation or marketing/selling someone else’s digital product, I can’t say enough about how enamoured I STILL am with the power of a few keystrokes. I’m still dumbfounded at this thing that we call ‘the internet’ and it’s power to let us reach millions of eyeballs with our content while still in our pajamas.

I’m also a single mom. Even though my kids are adults now, I remember how difficult it was to make money without leaving the house. So I’m passionate about helping other moms (single and not) money with a digital business, while the kids are at school (because let’s face it, that’s the only time you’re really gonna get any real peace).

Anyway…I said all that to say, it is entirely possible to succeed with a digital business in 2024, but you’ve gotta be realistic.

Most of the information that I’m seeing online about this topic is trash (sorry but I don’t make it true) info that makes money for the ‘creator’, but will have you running around in circles, and draining your pockets. It’s usually information that will have you wondering why it’s not working for you, but ‘so and so guru’ managed to make it work.

It’s all bogus.

There are too many courses that promise to teach you how to do this thing or that thing online, and charge you thousand$ for the privilege and get you no further ahead.

Digital businesses aren’t just about eBooks and affiliate marketing. There are literally dozens of ways to have a digital business selling just about anything you can imagine.

I started my digital business back in 2007, completely by accident. I bought an ebook (can’t remember what it was about), and after reading it, I decided to create a one page blog talking about how much I enjoyed the book.

Back then, I wasn’t ‘brave’ enough to try to use WordPress because it can be challenging at the best of times (if you know, you know), so I used Blogger to set up my page.

It was a super simple one page ‘testimonial’ type of post.

What you should also know is that this particular book had an affiliate program attached. The payout was only $7, but I wasn’t thinking about that. At that time, affiliate marketing was fairly new, and I sort of wanted to test it out. I actually had trouble believing that you could write about something that someone else created and get paid anything for doing it.

Anyway…

I wrote my little post, included my affiliate link and went about my business.

It must have been a couple of days later that I checked my affiliate account, and to my surprise, there was $7 in it. Someone read my little post, clicked on that affiliate link, bought that book, and I got paid.

I was gobsmacked.

SEVEN DOLLARS??? And while I was off doing whatever else? I made SEVEN DOLLARS?? (Not that $7 is a lot, but it was the concept…)

And you have to remember that this was back in 2007, so there was no Pinterest, or Facebook, or Twitter to spread the word about my post. And still, someone managed to find it, and BUY that book.

So at that point, not only did I dig deeper into the affiliate marketing space, but I thought “If I paid $14 for that book, and made $7, that means that someone wrote that book, and made $7 when I “sold” it…”

So I started writing eBooks and I have NOT looked back.

Anyway…

With everything that’s going on in the world, nothing is certain. Your job that you thought was so secure, could can you tomorrow. I tell young women to start their own businesses, regardless of how certain they are about what they’re doing now.

The whole world has gone digital. Don’t get left behind. Figure out what you’re passionate about, who your product(s) will be targeted at, and get to work. All you really need is a wifi connection, an idea and a laptop (and you don’t even really need the laptop these days).

These are my 7 steps to starting your digital business:

Figure out if you want to write and sell digital products, or just sell someone else’s digital products.
Figure out who those digital products will be targeted at (pick a niche).
Figure out how you’re going to create and/or sell those products (are you going to start a blog or ecommerce site, or use social media to sell?).
Figure out which platforms you’re going to use to market your work (or someone else’s work); Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok, etc.
Start watching videos, or checking out inexpensive courses to get the basics down. (I found that Udemy has an awesome selection of courses on just about every subject imaginable that aren’t expensive).
Find a creator whose opinion and instruction you trust, and milk their content for all they’ve got. LOL.
Come up with a name for your new endeavour. Once you’ve decided on a name, buy the domain name as well. Regardless of what you decide to do, you’ll probably need to have your own website, so you might as well get on this earlier rather than later.