The Blueprint to Your First $1 (and Beyond)
This is a raw, no-fluff guide from a 23-year-old who started with nothing but a construction job and a laptop. Here is the exact path I took to make my first £1, then £10, £100, £1,000 a day, and finally my first £100k online. If you're looking for more inspiration, you can explore other successful journeys in 15 Side Hustles I've Tried That Can Replace Your Day Job.
Step 1: Choose the Right Path (Hint: Digital Products)
Before anything, you must pick the right online business model. Don't jump into dropshipping, trading, or Amazon FBA just because they promise money.
- Find what fits you: Choose a path you genuinely enjoy, or you'll burn out before making your first dollar.
- Why Digital Products? You create it once (using just a laptop/phone). AI makes it even easier. No inventory, no shipping, no coaching clients. You sell the same asset over and over.
- My Advice: Start with digital products. They are the simplest way to get your first sale without risk. For a detailed roadmap, check out How to Build a $10K/Month AI-Powered Digital Product Business.
Step 2: Find Your "6 out of 10" Skill
You don't need to be a world-class expert. You just need to know more than someone else.
- The Concept: Think of a skill where you are a "6 out of 10" (e.g., simple sales, content creation, using AI).
- The Market: There are thousands of people at a "0 to 5" level who want to reach level 6.
- Your Product: Package the steps you took to get from 0 to 6 into a guide, template, or course.
- Example: Gym knowledge, meal planning, weight loss, video editing, using a specific app.
Step 3: Learn the Skills & Copy What Works (Don't Reinvent the Wheel)
You don't need to be original. You need to be effective.
- Assess & Adapt: Look at what is working for others (videos, offers, websites) and apply that formula to your own niche. The Beatles started as a cover band, use what's proven.
- Key Skills to Learn:
- Marketing & Sales
- Content Creation (using a camera like the Sony ZV-10)
- Offer & Product Creation
- Sales Psychology
Step 4: Create a "No-Brainer" Offer
Don't sell a boring PDF. Sell a transformation.
- The Formula: How can your customer get their desired outcome faster, cheaper, or easier than the alternative?
- Bad Offer: "The Ultimate Fitness Guide"
- No-Brainer Offer: "Lose 5kg in 30 Days from Home, No Gym Equipment Needed." (Solves the problem of gym intimidation and saves £300/year).
- Price Point: A low price like £27 feels like a no-brainer compared to a monthly gym subscription. This makes the first sale easy.
Step 5: Build a Simple Sales Funnel
Nobody buys a £100 product from a 60-second TikTok video.
- Your Funnel (Worked for Me):
- Content: Short-form videos (TikTok, Reels) sharing value.
- Free Value: A free mini-course or webinar. This builds trust.
- Paid Offer: The low-ticket digital product (£27-£97).
- My Biggest Success: 90% of my first massive sales came from zero ads, just TikTok to a free course to a £97 product. To see a similar scaled approach, check out How I Scaled to $100K/Month with One Offer, One Funnel, and 4 Hours a Day.
Step 6: Increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Don't just get new customers; make existing customers pay more.
- The Apple Strategy: Sell a great first product (like an iPhone). Then, naturally upsell accessories and higher-tier services.
- Your Upsell: Your cheap £27 product leads to a high-ticket offer.
- Product 1: A £27 sales course (learning).
- Product 2: A £297/month group coaching program (application).
- Result: You don't need to find 10 new customers to make £297; you just need to upgrade 1 existing customer.
Step 7: Iterate Using Customer Feedback
Your offer is never finished. Use feedback to make it irresistible.
- Listen to Objections: Pay attention to comments and questions like "But how do I [specific problem]?"
- Update Your Product: Add that specific solution to your course or guide.
- Result: Your offer now anticipates every doubt a customer has, making it a guaranteed "yes." For a different model similar to this, see How to Make $10,000/Month in 2026 by Partnering with Micro Creators.
If you're considering other business models beyond digital products, the Complete Guide to Scaling Profitable Print On Demand E-commerce Stores offers another proven path to online income.
Okay, so I've done 300K in digital product sales at the age of 22. I'm actually 23 now, so this stuff's growing
and growing, but I'm going to share exactly what it took to get my first £1 online with digital products, £10, £100,
£1,000, £1,000 a day, first 100K online the simplest way possible. And as you can see, I'm regular 23-year-old lad. I
used to work in construction, like literally just working a normal 7:00 till 6:00 p.m. job. But yeah, digital
products has absolutely crushed it and changed my life. So, I'm just going to be sharing on this channel and basically
in this video what it takes to basically achieve this and some steps that you can basically take from today to sell
digital products the simplest way possible, even if you're like a complete beginner, no experience, this is for
you. So, firstly, I actually needed to figure out what path I wanted to go down. There are so many different side
hustles, online businesses out there. You've got drop shipping, you've got trading, you've got digital products,
you've got Amazon FBA. You've got all of this stuff, building an agency, everything, right?
You need to find a path that actually works for you, okay? There's no good There's no point just going down a route
that makes loads of money and it's not something that you actually find
enjoyable simply because you're just going to drain yourself. You're not actually going to get through the first
step. You're not going to make your first £1 because you're not going to actually enjoy what you're doing,
firstly. For me, I figured out that selling digital products
is like one of the easiest and best things you can do online simply because of how simple it can be. You don't have
to have like a team. You don't have to stress. You're not necessarily coaching people as such. You're just basically
creating something once, putting it onto a store, creating content around that.
And you're selling that over and over again. And you actually you can use AI to do it to make it a lot easier and
simpler. And the whole process just so much easier now, which is crazy. And I've also dropped a Charlie AI, which is
basically me but in an AI version. And you can literally message it every single day and say, "Hey Charlie, can
you build this with me or help me build this?" So, if you comment Charlie in this video, I'll send you over a link to
that. I've only got 100 spaces for it at the minute simply because I'm still testing it and making it better, but
it's really cool. Save you spending hundreds on my mentoring stuff like that or a coach. But there's like so many
things that you can do with AI now that's just going to make your stuff even easier and better
and easier to actually make money online because myself, as I say, made over 300k at 22 when I turned 22, but 23 years old
now and if I would have known what I know in this video and that that I'm going to tell you, it would be a lot
quicker and simpler and I would have saved yeah, I would have saved you so much time. So, first you need to find
your path and actually figure out what it is that you want to do. So, drop shipping, trading, any of that stuff.
You can go and do that. You can go and spend thousands on the courses and go and spend thousands on the ads and the
products and stuff to go and ship and then sell. Don't do that is my advice. My advice would be sell digital products
simply because you can create something from your laptop or your phone once based off your
knowledge, experience, passion, or expertise. If you're watching this right now, you probably know how to pick pick
the camera up and create some content or you're probably somebody who has AI knowledge or
some kind of skill that you can package into a digital product, okay? I know it says to people like try and find your
level six out of 10. So, you might not even be a 10 out of 10 expert in something or knowledge or expertise or
experience and stuff, but maybe you're a six out of 10 something, okay? So, you could be something
you could be a six out of 10 in sales, marketing, creating content, anything basically, right? But there's
people who are level zero to six who don't even know how to get there and you were actually in that position one one
point. That could be going to the gym, it could be losing weight, it could be gaining muscle, it could be anything,
meal planning, anything, right? You can create a digital product around that and you can find that market of pool of
people of their level zero to six or level zero to 10, whatever level you are, and you can sell a digital product
around that. All you need to do is actually figure out what your what you have to overcome to get to those steps
originally and then package that into an offer and into a digital product, which we'll get onto in a bit. But that's
really how simple this can be, okay? So, for me it was like, okay, what are the skills that I've learned, which takes me
on to point two, learning the skills and assess what's actually working out there and do your own spin on it. Okay, I just
can't remember whose video it was. I think it was Austin George's
Wot Guy. Um Wot is well crazy good platform. I've generated over six figures on that platform simply because
it's really easy to take payments on there. So, shout out what. But, his video was like um
"Oh, but I don't want to copy videos. I don't want to copy that. I don't want to copy this." And then he was like, "But,
The Beatles were literally like a cover band or something." Or they copied people's music and stuff like that. Um
and it's just the exact same thing. Like, you're not copying anybody's work. You're literally just assessing what
works out there, whether that's creating content, building an offer, building a website, anything like that. Don't copy,
but basically the If people are 10 steps ahead of you, there's a reason they've they are doing that or there's a reason
they've done that. It's because they've been through the steps of something not working or an offer that's not working
or a website that hasn't worked. And if you booked a call with them, if you worked with them, you're basically just
going to know, okay, this guy's done that. They're 10 steps ahead of where I want to be. Let me assess what's worked
for them or what's working for them and how can I implement that for my own stuff? Like me, for content creation, I
don't just look at people in like my niche or digital products or anything like that. I look at any any any If I
scroll on TikTok or or Instagram or YouTube and I see a video that's doing well,
like how to do this, how to do that, I try and implement that into my own videos and how
how can I do this because this video's gone viral? How can I do that for my own niche and my own brand, okay? So,
learning the skills as well. So, if you're not a level six out of 10 in anything, if you feel like you can't
package anything to a digital product, which is ultimately somebody's going to buy like a PDF, a course, a website, a
software, an app, anything like that, digital products or a digital asset, you can learn the skills. You can learn AI.
You can learn content creation. You can learn sales. You can learn marketing. You can learn how to use a camera. This
camera is the Sony ZV-10. I didn't even know how to use this, but I've got it to a point where it looks good quality.
I've got a mic clipped on. And yeah, I didn't understand that, but I watched a few YouTube videos and it helped me, you
know? So, if I didn't watch those videos, I would have no idea how to do that. And I'm still probably like a
level three out of 10 on it, but hopefully it looks cool, right? Well, I've learned the skills and I've
learned how to use a camera. That's another skill set, so like videography, I suppose, and making my stuff more
cinematic. Then once you've compounded those skills, so the skills I had to learn was
obviously creating a digital product, creating an offer, sales, marketing, content creation, um
how like sales psychology, everything that you basically need to one run a business and secondly run it online. So,
the fundamental skills that you need to learn I've got loads of free videos. But again, if you comment Charlie in the
description, I'll send you over my Charlie AI which can just help you speed up all of this.
Basically it's as if you were messaging me one-to-one and helping me and say, "Hey Charlie, how how can I learn this?"
The skills I would learn is marketing, sales, learning how to create a digital product, what type of digital products
so you've got like courses, templates, guides, PDFs, softwares, apps, anything, literally anything digital.
Learn how to do that stuff and then basically assess what's working and use your skills to do what's working but
your own twist, okay? Thirdly, we need to create the offer. So, what are you actually selling, okay?
And I'm not talking about like an ultimate fitness guide, that stuff just doesn't do well anymore.
This looks like the worst color ever but it's apple juice. And I hope you like these videos by the
way. I'm just going to keep it raw and just tell you how this stuff works, so
I'm even going to edit that out. But, creating the offer and I'm not just talking like ultimate fitness guide.
I'm talking about how you can create an offer so good that nobody can say no to, okay? Whether that's it's crazy cheap
but there's so much value in there to the point where everybody says yes to her.
And I don't mean underpricing yourself massively so you're shooting yourself in the foot where it's like a one pound
product with like hours and hours worth of stuff in there, great. That could be a good entry point.
But you want to create an offer that nobody can say no to where it's filled with value but the main thing is that
the that the customer gets the outcome from it. How can they get to the outcome the quickest way possible without
spending as much time as possible? So, I think it was even in Hormozi's book about the offers but
how can you basically let's say your product is around losing weight and going and just basically getting
shredded? How can somebody get to that end goal without spending hundreds of pounds on
gym and personal trainers and spending months and years to get there? How can you create an offer so good that they
can do that? Okay? Here's how you can lose weight at home. Here's how you can lose 5 kg within 30
days without going to the gym. Yeah, without going to the gym using home workouts. Well, straight away that
offer is Okay, without going to the gym, instantly that's confidence in the gym. People don't have confidence necessarily
in the gym. Secondly, 20 30 pound a month gym membership, I don't know. Some of them are crazy priced. So, that's
already 300 pound a year that's a saving. And then the convenience of home
workouts that you're going to give them in a guide or a course format or any basically any format you like.
It's convenient. They're going to get it straight away. And they can go and do it, okay?
So, you're basically giving them a digital product straight away. So, you're giving them a digital product
straight away that they can get instantly after buying your thing. And they're saving 300 pound a year on a gym
subscription. To me, that product can easily sell at 27 pound. A complete no-brainer because
that's one month worth of gym subscription uh gym subscription, but they only have to pay it once and they
get lifetime access. That seems like a no-brainer, right? The good thing from that is when you sell that product for
27 pound or a low sort of price point, you've now got that happy customer. They can go and do the outcome. They can go
and do it themselves. And there's no time required on your end because you're just selling the product that they can
go and use and go and watch or read or whatever it is that the product is. But you just sold it, right? There's no
access to you one-to-one. This takes on to me in that my next point. How can you get more customers or how can you make
more money? There's There's two ways, right? You either get more customers, which is the harder way, or you get your
existing customers to pay you more money. So, think of like Apple, right? I've got the iPhone here. This is like
my business phone. I've got the Apple magic keyboard here. I've got the mouse. I've got the MacBook. I've got the iPad.
They're wired earbuds. They have increased their lifetime value on me by I don't know, like a thousand pound
easily because they've got other products, okay? And because I can't remember what the first Apple product
was I bought, but like the iPod touch or shuffle or whatever. Because that product was so cool and everybody was
using it, it was the one to have. I bought that and because it was a good product, I then bought the next product
or I buy the new phone or upgrade or whatever when I need to because the first initial product was that good. So,
you think if somebody buys your your digital product for so cheap, but there's so much value in there,
that basically is just like an easy next step for them to buy your next product or your next step naturally, which could
be to work with you one-to-one, which is on a higher price point, and then you're increasing the customer lifetime value.
So, you don't have to get a new customer every single time. Let's say you had a product for £27, and you had a a higher
ticket offer for all £297 you don't have to find 10 £27 buyers anymore because you can just take £27
guy to £297 because you've got that natural next step, you know? It could be a sales course where they can learn
sales, and then the next step is join the group coaching for £297 a month. You're then increasing the lifetime
value. Can you see how simple this stuff can be, right? And that's exactly what I did. I But, my funnel was literally from
short-form with no ads as well, and 90% of it was from TikTok. Literally short-form to a free course, literally
just a free course with me sharing like how you can create content, grow your personal brand, sell digital products,
and stuff. A digital products mini course £97 purchase, and it was really really that simple. So, that's how I did
my best ever month as well, first 6K in 1 month, which was crazy with no team, with no ads.
And that's how I did it. It was a no-brainer offer, it's like a 10-hour digital products course where you can go
and learn it. I do actually sell that product and that course to this day. If anybody wants to learn that, just
comment "club" down below, and I'll send you over access. I only really give access to it a couple of times a month.
But, yeah, you can have access to that, okay? And that's what I was selling, okay? And
that that done really really well cuz it solved the problem of obviously increasing income, and there was
everything you needed to grow a personal brand, grow a personal brand, sell digital
products, building funnels, building offers, everything, right? It was really really good. So, that's what did well,
okay? Then you're obviously packaging that, you're then putting it onto a store, putting it onto a website. But,
you can't just take somebody from a TikTok video or YouTube video and expect them to go and buy something. You just
can't, right? There needs to be something in between. So, there needs to be either book a call with you for free,
there needs to be a free course, there needs to be a webinar, there needs to be something
like added value that they can have on like a one-to-one level or one-to-many level that makes them purchase from you,
okay? Because nobody watches a one-minute video of you saying, "Oh, you've you've done X, Y,
and Z or I can help you do X, Y, and Z." and then expect them to pay £100. I've never done it, you've probably never
done it. You've watched something or you've been on a call with somebody or you've watched something on a longer
YouTube format or a webinar or whatever, then you've then purchased from there. So, there needs to be something in
between. So, you need to figure out what your free value is after your content. So, it could be content, free course, or
to book a call or webinar. Then from that, how can they then go and buy your digital product? I mean, ultimately, if
you have a product worth like £27, you're you are going to get some sales from your content alone. But for me, it
was literally content, free one-hour course sharing what a digital product is, answering all the audience problems
in there, selling a product for £97, and that was it. I didn't even have a next step from that cuz I was so stupid, but
I still did the record month. Once you then figure out what people are asking you in in content like, "Okay,
but how do you do this? How do you do do that?" Or you have feedback from your initial customers saying like, "Okay,
but I need to do this now. How can I do that simply?" You just make your product even better, then your no-brainer offer
becomes even more of a no-brainer because you're literally getting people saying to you in content, "Hey, how do
you do this? How do you do that?" You're making your offer even better. So, then when they come to your paid product,
there's going to be one thing that somebody's looking for, whether it's let's just one little like feature
inside of it in your product or your offer that's going to make them want to buy. And if that offer if that problem
solution isn't there in the text included, you get this included, they're not going to purchase because they
aren't looking for the the 10-hour course, they're looking for the outcome that they're going to get from that
offer. So, that is it. So, basically, you find your path, what you actually want to do realistically, digital
product should be the path, learn the skills, and assess what's actually working,
create the offer, package it, and repeat. And that is literally what I did to make 300k at 22. It'll say I'm 23
years old now, but yeah, that is literally what I did and what I would do if I was starting from scratch. I also
host some free live workshops as well, so just look out for them. But again, if you comment Charlie down below, I'll
send you access to my Charlie AI. Literally stupidly cheap a month and you can get access to me basically without
having to wait for a message from me. You get it instantly. And if you want access to the Simplified
Club where I host all of this stuff and do group calls weekly, just comment club down below. And yeah, I really hope this
video helped. And comment for any other stuff if you want me to break down some digital product stores or anything like
that or offers, I'll do that. But yeah, I'll see you in the next one.
A digital product business involves creating a sellable asset once (like a guide, template, or course) and selling it repeatedly with no inventory, shipping, or need to coach clients. The creator recommends it because it's the simplest, lowest-risk way to get your first sale online, especially with modern AI tools that make creation easy.
A '6 out of 10' skill is something you know moderately well—better than a beginner (0–5) but not necessarily an expert. You package the exact steps you took to go from 0 to 6 (e.g., gym knowledge, video editing, or using a specific app) into a guide or course for people who want to reach your level.
Instead of selling a boring PDF, frame your offer around a transformation. Use the formula: show how the customer gets their desired outcome faster, cheaper, or easier than alternatives. For example, 'Lose 5kg in 30 Days from Home, No Gym Equipment Needed' saves money and eliminates gym intimidation, making a £27 price feel like a clear bargain.
The funnel consists of 1) short-form value videos on TikTok/Reels, 2) a free mini-course or webinar to build trust, and 3) a low-ticket digital product priced at £27–£97. The creator achieved zero-ad sales by leading viewers from TikTok directly to the free course, then converting them to the paid offer.
Start with a cheap first product (like a £27 course) to build trust, then upsell a higher-ticket offer. For example, the first product educates on sales, while a £297/month group coaching program helps them apply it. This reduces the need for constant new customer acquisition—you only need to upgrade one satisfied customer to reach the same revenue as ten new ones.
Listen to objections and questions from comments, like 'But how do I [specific problem]?' Then update your course or guide to directly solve that issue. This iteration makes your offer anticipate every doubt, turning it into a guaranteed 'yes' that sells almost automatically.
Complex models like dropshipping, trading, or Amazon FBA often promise quick money but require inventory, shipping logistics, significant capital, or high risk. The creator advises starting with digital products because they involve no inventory or shipping, require only a laptop/phone, and allow you to sell one created asset repeatedly—minimizing burnout and financial risk for your first sale.
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