How can I turn my knowledge and skills in self-improvement into a source of income?

One way you can build a list of clients is by giving away a free, 5-7 short ebook that may target a specific problem. Post it on the WF with an opt-in page which will allow you to have a targeted list of people who are interested in self-improvement. You can market to this group of people while you continue to grow your list.

Offering your service for free to get started like you said is a good way to generate testimonials and you can use them when promoting your mentoring or products you sell later.

ALso, when you offer your service for free to get started you can get valuable feedbacks so that when you do charge people things should go smoother for you and your clients.

When I became a certified coach, I would do an initial session for free, then put clients on a monthly retainer for 10.00 month, just for results and testimonials. Once I was confident in my skills I did group sessions and charged anywhere between 50-125 per session.

And like Emi_Suzuki said, create an ebook to build an opt-in list. from there you can promote affiliate products that are in line with your particular niche and monetize off of that until you are able to create an info product that is ready to be sold. Take that product and release it to your list first, then release to everyone else. But thats just my way of doing it, and it works pretty good.

To add on to doing a free ebook and doing session for free, also set up a site that shows the services you have and also have a blog full of high quality personal development content - this will attract your desired audience and gives them an opportunity to get to know you - make them feel comfortable enough to part with their money for your mentoring.

My 2 cents worth - best of luck

Shaleniie Devi

Good for you!

That connection sound like it could be worth money.

If you offer this advice one on one, the term "personal coach" applies.

You could also help a few people in-depth at once with a workshop format, or provide advice to many people at once with a seminar or other public speaking. In this case, the term "motivational speaker" would likely apply to your career, and "how to seminar" to your event.

Your kind of information is often best to present in person, so that it's easier to show how much you care and to pick up on nonverbal clues to how people feel. That said, you might have success with a "teleseminar" format using a free conference call service. (The phone connection can be free. You can charge for the conference, or offer it free and sell your product at the end of the session.) Kathleen Gage has an excellent ebook about teleseminars. Also look at Michael Senoff's site for his material about how to turn interviews into information products.

Your idea of helping a few people for free in exchange for testimonials seems like a good one. If they are willing to have their sessions recorded, you can then upload the audio and transcripts like Senoff does. You can also add a few pictures or text slides to make a video, and put it up on Youtube in ten minute clips. Youtube commenters are very active and a lot of the comments are incredibly dumb, but you'll also quickly see what people like about your style.

Also, put together slides for 10, 30, or 50 minute presentations about how to overcome life's challenges and reach your goals. Offer to present these talks for free to local groups such as Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and charities. Let them know that you love this material and you are looking for ways to share it with more people. As you do this, you'll refine your talk and you may also meet someone who has a great referral or business tip that can launch your career.

The lack of professional certifications didn't hurt Tony Robbins when he started. He'd talk with any group anywhere just to demonstrate what he had to offer.

Of course your own website should be the central point for all your marketing efforts, and include an opportunity for people to sign up for your mailing list. Send an inspirational thought of the day, or a weekly case study of someone who triumphed over adversity.

I'd be happy to brainstorm further with you in this forum, or if you'd like to follow up by private message.

Chris

Get a blog / site that really serves YOU - so that you come across as who you really are, day in, week out. Give masses of stuff away for nothing. Go on doing it. Build your list of recipients. Smother them with stuff that has served you. Work up an offering that - now that they know you, trust you, would recommend you - they'll want to pay for.

Coaching is a business - I know to many coaches who are fluffy about their businesses...

Best of luck - James

Get a site up and mentor/coach a few people for free to build up some feedback. It depends on your background and aims really. I was a national training manager, so mentoring etc was always part of what I did, so I just skipped the rep building, but you might need some. It really does depend on what you want to get out of it.

All I would say is that you can read as much as you want, but you need to get out there and deal with people to build your real world skill levels.

Yep, I would start a blog and start adding content. Tell people what your experience is and how you can help them.

Hello, a lot of people talked here about an e-book.. I'd like to offer you mine to get you started. You can customize it 100% free and place your name and website info as well as any other contact info you want to put in the book. You can use it to create credibility for yourself, and also offer it as a free gift in exchange for an email address if you're building your list.

Also, after you offer a free coaching session, you can give it to the person as a freebee to get them into action.

Hope this helps. You can get the book and customize it at the link in my signature.

Tom

You've received lots of great advice. Just one more suggestion that might not have been brought up - if compiling your own ebook is too time-consuming or tedious, you could narrate it into a recorder and make it into an audio CD. An audio CD has a higher perceived value than an ebook.

O, don't worry too much about not having official credentials. You can still write or compile an ebook on your chosen topic even though you don't hold any paper qualifications in that field. Just say that you are a researcher who is very enthusiastic about the topic and the ebook is the result of your extensive research.

All the best!

3afash,
I have a blog on personal development, self-motivation, etc, and am always looking for contributors. If you think you might be interested in contributing, let me know.

Hi, I'm new to online business and marketing(19yrs) but extremely interested in the same exact thing as 3afash. I have a passion for self improvement and want to help others along the way so I'm very likely to take the same route at least for a time.

Afash, I'm still in the studying phase and I was wondering if you had any products that really stood out to you along your journey and in your studies? I'd greatly appreciate some input.

Also,

For some online revenue, I think you could firstly put together a site and offer a variety of products to appeal to a wide variety of potential customers(.I'm very sorry but I can't think of the correct phrase for this.....sell a wide range of products that appeal to customers that are careful and tight with their money as well as the ones that will spend a fortune on you if you provide the value they are looking for)

Once again, I'm entirely new to this but this is what I would likely if I opened up an online business currently.

You could set up a free report, video or newsletter about the basics of self improvement and set up your free report to leave the potential customers satisfied and to gain his/her trust. Just make sure you provide value while luring them into your products. The key is to build up emails.

You could then send a link to a squeeze page over email and offer a product that entirely over delivers on value. Explain the fundamental foundations for self-improvement for a vague ex.

This will be the true introduction into your products so make it count. Make it cheap(not too cheap) and over deliver to gain trust.

At this point you can do what you want. You could offer more expensive video series, seperate ebooks, ect at your website. I think what will really help you in the mentoring category would be to offer a free hour, week, or month long session (with a purchase of an ebook or video) to get some exposure and some feedback and to further build trust and credibility.

An earlier suggestion of giving free mentoring to build up testimonials is a great idea too.

You can set up one on one conferences on skype or offer a free webinar to a group in return for unbiased feedback. That would build your rep very quickly.(If you decide to do this you should let me know! I'm in college so I have limited resources lol)

One last thing. I have a feeling that this is a very profitable niche. If you decide to sell products online, you can do a couple joint ventures with some people that have already built up an email list of potential buyers in this niche. In return they get some commission. Win-Win-Win.

I think all of this would help build your name decently fast but you may still need to advertise to get steady income.(Plenty of that here : 0 )

Just a newbies outlook on it but hey I can't get better if I don't express what I already know and look for feedback! And I don't think I said anything harmful, I'm just throwing out some ideas to get you thinking.
I was wondering if I could get any honest and constructive feedback on this approach from more experienced businessmen/women that are willing to take some time to help the new kid out. Thx!

Become an inspirational speaker, write a book.

You've been given some fabulous advice here. So now reflect on it, create your vision and then get your plan together. Noned of that need take very long. And when you are done decide what action you are going to take and then do so.

AlrightGame, you are missing customer loyalty. If you combine this with everything else, you'll surely profit make good profits in this business.

you have a product to help other you must share your knowledge with product like ebook, video or blog

Seth, Thanks for your input. Having your own unique idea/technique never crossed my mind for some reason : p It's always the simplest things lol.

That was a really cool thought but I kind of disagree with you philosophy on sticking to one format in your products.

For example: You can make an ebook you can record an audio with it. If certain concepts come up and they look like a great video series and there's a great demand for it. Why not give it a shot? By just putting these same concepts into a new ebook your loosing money.

You could focus on ebooks and audios to start: It's a great introduction for customers and can work as a funnel for your more expensive products. By doing this you get more exposure to one on one coaching and to your thoughts and methods.

Seth, what ya think?

As long as you are keen to work in this area, there are many ways you can earn a good living in this special field. A good step would be to think about what other aspects in your life you enjoy just as much and incorporate this into your self development learning resources to help others.

It could could be you like jogging for instance, you could develop your jogging regime into a "Healthy Mind and body" which is your mini business. You could also like writing or working more on a one 2 one basis and implement the skills and know how there too

There are loads of Ebooks, Courses, Videos available. Have a think about and you never know, you might come up with some fresh ideas. All the resources are there, just have to work out exactley what type of path you wish to use.

Create some videos and reports and give them away for free, develop a course that is an upsell in the videos and reports.

I would write an autobiography aabout yourself and self publish it on Amazon. People will be willing to listen more to a published author. It is really easy to self publish on amazon. They give you a template to place your cover Graphics on and they only print what is ordered.