How I Made my First $100 Online

Doaily

I made this app because I wanted to share the to-do list system that has helped me stay accountable and get things done.

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This isn't to sell you a dream.

Earning money online isn't easy.

I remember making my first cent ... how happy I was and how long it took.

But, once it happened, everything changed for me and I wanted more.

My first $100 online wasn't just a milestone. It was proof that this is an actual possibility so long as I create something valuable.

//What Didn't Work

Creating something valuable is arguably the one thing I didn't do in my first attempts to make money online.

Arguably, because my first two products were mobile games.

I poured a lot of time into building them, but they didn't generate any sort of meaningful revenue.

Why? Because they had a freemium model that mostly relied on you to watch some ads.

There were actual in-game items that you could buy, but no one stuck around long enough to engage deeply with the game itself for that to even seem worth it.

Maybe the games weren't compelling enough, or maybe I didn't market them well–but either way, this journey taught me crucial things.

Things that eventually allowed me to make decent money online–money that I could actually use to pay for things in my life.

//What Worked

With the third app that I had just recently launched, I approached things differently.

1. Solving a real problem

So, instead of creating yet another mobile game, I made a productivity app called Doaily this time around.

An app that could actually solve a problem rather than an app that you could maybe pickup when you're bored or just want to pass time.

For a while now, I had this bullet journalling system that I had to manually setup. I use it to visualize my progress toward my goals to just keep my day to day focus.

Doaily replaced that. Not fully (yet), but it's getting there.

The system had changed my life and chances are it could save yours or someone else that runs into it.

So, I turned it into an app.

And by the way, no hate on games. I will probably make more later in life, but this is just an objective view on what's working for me.

2. Putting a price on it

This was the game changer for me.

Unlike my previous products that mostly relied on ads and pure hope of someone liking the game enough to make an in-app purchase, I put a straight-up price on Doaily.

• $3.99 monthly
• $34.99 yearly
• $64.99 lifetime

It has no free version—just a 7 day free trial.

People had to financially commit to access it and that is making all the difference for me.

There's about 100 users that signed up for Doaily currently and most of them had been filtered out by the paywall.

So, there's still something to be said about having a free version. I just don't have the resources to afford that at the moment.

3. Putting it out there

Speaking of free, sharing on social media is free.

So, I shared Doaily across social media as much as I could, which manages to attract a few random subscribers every month.

And from the moment I launched the app, I also had family and friends who actually went through the paywall and continue to support me to this day.

It's a slow start, but I know these small wins add up over time.

If you're trying to make your first dollar online, I hope reading this was some sort of fuel for you.

It won't be easy, but it's worth it.

Your first $100 online is loading.

— Renz