By now you know I love to start off my articles by reminding everybody, there has never been a greater time to be alive. I firmly believe that! We have never been able to wake up and decide to start building a skill set and be able to turn that skill into an income. It’s so easy that the people who deny this are usually just unsure about how to properly use the internet. I wanted to address the big question of how to start making money, with no money.

I for one started blogging and building Droid Island with a free a WordPress theme and paid less than $100ttd to purchase my domain & hosting. You know the good ol saying, “it takes money, to make money?”, its kind of misleading in today’s age. I prefer the saying “if you don’t have the money, you better have the time.” Basically, you can start learning skills that will be able to translate into an income. There are so many amazing free resources to get you started. I learnt how to build my own WordPress site, the fundamentals of SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing, all through free resources.

So I wanted to break it down for everyone who is looking to get started on building a business or learning a skill but might be strapped for cash. Here are the top 3 things you need to do in order to start making money, without spending money.

• Spend time learning through free resources
• Do free projects for people to build your portfolio
• Use Social Media & Freelance platforms to get hired

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Learning From Free Resources

Starting out, I cannot tell you how many hours I spent watching videos and reading blogs, subscribing to experts mailing lists and learning from social media. Literally, anything you want to learn is available for free, if you are willing to put in the time to piece it all together. The reason why people pay experts for their courses is to cut down on all of the research time required. Udemy, Youtube, Social Media and Google will give you access to learn skills such as learning how to put together a WordPress/Squarespace website, digital marketing, SEO, how to create content, how to create ads, graphic design and the list goes on.

Some great people to watch on Youtube to get started are Gary Vee, Jay Shetty, Cereal Entrepreneur, Anthony Greoper, Wholesale Ted, Roberto Blake, Social Media Examiner. All of these entrepreneurs will teach you, get you in the right mindset and push in the right direction of where to learn more about your business & skills.

If you do not have the money, you need to make the time to learn through the thousands of free resources to get your business started.

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Do Free Projects

The number 1 thing I hate to see is people trying to charge for coaching or strategy sessions and they haven’t even built their own brand and platforms. Imagine someone charging you to build your social media following and when you check their platforms out, they don’t even have 1k followers on their platforms.

Listen, if you haven’t built your own platforms but you are charging to help others grow, you are simply hypothetically speaking. What you need to be doing is to get a few people who are willing to let you build something for them for free and then use them for your portfolio and proof of concept.

If you are learning to build websites, build a couple websites for free (charge them the basic domain/hosting fees, so you aren’t out of pocket) and if you are trying to be a coach, coach some clients for free and show the world the results of what 3 months of working with you can result for future clients.

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Build Your Portfolio

As previously mentioned, you need to build your portfolio. This is your proof of concept. Your body of work is all the credibility you need in the digital age. Nobody is going to ask you for your credentials or what school you went to when you have a body of work that shows the world that you can get the job done.

Just a few weeks after I learned how to blog and started to blog, I started to get featured on TV and different publications. But everyone landed on my website, they were met with quite a few blogs that showcased my knowledge on the smartphone industry in the Caribbean.

There is nothing the seals the deal quicker on prospective clients quicker than your portfolio. You can use platforms like Linkedin to target business owners, social media will help get your message out there and there are tons of Freelance platforms like Upwork that you can use to gain clients internationally so that you are not limited to just your country for clients

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Before anybody complains about the length of time it will take before you start making money, save it. This is the no fluff, no complaining zone! The fact that you even have the options to learn how to build high-income skills is more than enough for you to be grateful.

It’s been over a year and a half since I spent a penny on marketing! I’ve focused on how to give value, leverage a variety of platforms, collaborating and doing workshops, that has allowed me to continuously keep my brand on the upward trajectory.

So there you have it folks, 3 ways you can start your learning skills and building your brand for free!