Affiliate income and crypto get all the attention, but here’s the truth: for most people reading this, the first reliable four-figure month comes from someone paying them to do a job. Services fund everything else.
5.1 Freelancing marketplaces
Freelancing means you’re not tied to one employer — you work project to project. Businesses post what they need done, and you list what you can do.
| Platform | Best for | Their cut |
|---|---|---|
| Upwork | Longer contracts and repeat clients. Best money of the four | ~10% |
| Fiverr | Packaged, repeatable jobs. Easiest to start | 20% |
| Freelancer.com | Volume and contests. Aussie-founded | ~10% |
| PeoplePerHour | UK/EU clients, hourly work | Sliding, ~20% down to 3.5% |
| Airtasker | Local, physical, in-person work | ~15–20% |
Fiverr was built on $5 jobs and the old edition of this book said so. That era is over. Fiverr takes 20%, so a $5 order pays you $4 for work that takes real time. Worse, ultra-cheap pricing attracts the worst clients and actually hurts your ranking on the platform.
Start your basic package at $25–$75. The sellers making real money in 2026 lead with $75–$250 packages and build from there. Cheap doesn’t win you work — it wins you nightmares who haggle over $4.
Getting your first job when you have no reviews
- Be specific. “I write product descriptions for Australian tradie supply stores” beats “I write content” every day of the week.
- Make three samples before you have a single client. Invent the client. Nobody’s checking, and now you have a portfolio.
- Apply to small, boring, recent jobs. Under $100, posted in the last two hours. Big glamorous jobs have 200 applicants.
- Read the brief and answer it. Mention a specific detail from their post in the first line. Most applicants paste the same template — you’ll stand out by proving you read it.
- Overdeliver on the first three. Those reviews are worth more than the money. After that, put your prices up.
5.2 The local business play
This is the one I’d push hardest, because the money is better and the competition is thinner.
Half the small businesses within driving distance of you are invisible online. Not because they don’t want to be — because nobody’s offered, and they don’t know where to start.
Do it free for the kids’ footy team and you’ll be surprised how many opportunities fall out of it. Half those kids’ parents are tradies. Every one of them needs a website, socials and an online presence. Sponsors are good customers. So are the mums running the canteen roster — they know everybody.
The more you do it, the faster you get. Once you’ve set up five, the sixth takes an afternoon. Charge a setup fee, then a monthly fee to keep it running. Around $500 a month is fair for a real ongoing service, and after a month he’ll know he’s getting more work out of it, because people will be emailing him.
| Service | Why they need it | Ballpark |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile setup | It’s how locals find them. Free to set up, most haven’t | $150–$300 once |
| One-page website | Somewhere to send people | $400–$1,500 |
| Social setup + 8 posts/month | They’ll never do it themselves | $300–$800/mo |
| Review chasing | Reviews are the whole ballgame for a local trade | $150–$400/mo |
| Photos of their actual work | Stock photos fool nobody | $200–$500 |
- Never guarantee results. “I’ll get you to number one on Google” is a promise you can’t keep and it’s misleading conduct. Sell the work, not the outcome.
- Put it in writing. One page: what you’ll do, what it costs, when you’re paid, how either side ends it. Get paid 50% up front. Every freelancer learns this the expensive way — learn it here instead.
5.3 Writing for money
Article writing is good, but not for everyone. Only go here if you enjoy writing and your English and grammar are solid. It’s also time-consuming, because doing it properly means research.
The good news: it needs no investment to start. Write a few sample articles, send them to prospects, start working.
- Textbroker and iWriter — low rates, but they pay, and they’re a place to build proof.
- Listverse — pays a flat fee for accepted list articles. Hard to get in, good money when you do.
- Direct to businesses — where the actual money is. A tradie’s website needs eight pages written. That’s a $1,200 job, not a $12 one.
- Local content — real estate agencies, tourism operators, clubs and councils all buy words and most don’t know where to buy them.
AI will absolutely help you here. It’ll research faster, structure an article, and give you a first draft. Use it.
But: run everything through a grammar check and a human read before it goes out, and know that most serious clients now ask whether AI was used. Be straight with them. The play that works is “AI-assisted, human-edited, and I stand behind every fact” — and then actually check the facts, because it invents them with total confidence. The writers losing work in 2026 are the ones who handed over raw AI output and got caught.
5.4 Digital marketing as a skill
Digital marketing keeps growing because businesses keep moving online, and online reaches a wider audience than their shopfront ever did. That means a big market for people who can do it.
You don’t need all of it. Learn one skill properly and sell that skill to businesses too big to do it themselves and too small to hire someone:
- Google Business Profile and local SEO
- Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram)
- Email marketing and automation
- Short-form video editing
- Landing pages that convert
Learn it free — Google Digital Garage, Meta Blueprint, HubSpot Academy and YouTube will teach you all of it for nothing. Then practise on your own business from Chapter 4, and use that as your case study.
Do the work once, sell it many times. Build one really good process for one service — a checklist, a template, a set of standard posts — and then run it for ten clients instead of inventing it fresh every time. That’s the difference between a job and a business.
This week
- Pick one service you could deliver tomorrow.
- Do it once, free, for someone local. Take before-and-after screenshots.
- Write a one-page offer with a price on it.
- Send it to five local businesses. Not fifty. Five, personally.