In his famous series, how to get rich without getting lucky, Naval Ravikant said something that greatly resonates with me. Excerpts from his tweets read:
“Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.”
He goes on:
“If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.”
What Naval was talking about is how to build leverage and wealth using digital assets or what I call digital real estate.
Another of my favourite internet entrepreneurs Dan Koe says:
“20 years from now, this generation will be referenced as the generation that used digital real estate to build wealth”.
I know you also want to know what is digital real estate/asset and how you can also leverage it to build wealth.
I will try to explain what digital real estate/assets are and how anyone, even if you’re a complete beginner, can use it to build wealth. After reading this article, you’ll know why now is the best time to build a digital real estate asset if you have not started to build one already.
Before I proceed, here’s a story of how a digital asset I own saved me at an important point in my life.
I moved to the United Kingdom with in September 2022 with my family, and you know it costs a fortune moving from Africa to go and live in a new country in Europe.
As you can guess, things were tough when we first arrived in the new city.
Imagine leaving your larger family, close friends and everything in your comfort zone, to a new country where you have no family, friends a job or a client base.
Everything felt scary and uncertain when we arrived. We hadn’t gotten a house at the time and we had to live in an Airbnb for months.
Keeping up with bills in the new country was hard but thankfully, I had a coaching client who was paying me weekly for my services plus my sister came through for us at the time so we were able to meetup with the bills during that period (God bless you Eka Bizle).
Anyway, let’s get back to our digital assets story. Today’s story isn’t about me or how I struggled when we first moved to a new country. The take out from what I what I’m trying to say is that income from my digital assets was helped me to clear the debts we incurred from our relocation.
The digital asset I started to build back home in Lagos, Nigeria finally started to pay off when I moved to a new country and enabled me to continue living a relatively good life in the new country.
Eventhough I had started to build this digital asset in Lagos, my location didn’t matter. It continued to pay me anyway.
Now that you’ve heard how a digital asset saved me, here’s how it can save you too. I’ll start by defining digital assets and how you can levarge it to build wealth irrespective of your location.
What is a digital asset/real estate?
A digital asset, also known as digital real estate, is any online resource or property you own and control that has the potential to generate you income and grow in value over time. These assets come in various forms and are created and managed online. They include a variety of ventures such as blogs, YouTube channels, e-commerce stores, social media profiles, email lists, mobile apps, online games, softwares and even online courses.
Some popular digital real estate owners in the world today include Youtubers such as Ali Abdal, Mr Beast, Wode Maya, Marques Brownlee and Tayo Aina. Tiktok stars such as Khaby Lame and entrepreneurs such as Russel Brunson, Alex Hormozi and Toyin Omotosho.
Don’t let those big names scare you. Ordinary everyday people and regular 9-5ers who are just like you have learned to build their own successful digital assets that help them supplement the income from their regular jobs. Some have even quit their jobs and are beginning to live the life of their dreams via the income they generate from their digital assets.
What are the advantages of digital real estate/ assets?
Unlike physical assets such as gold, land, houses, commercial buildings, and rental properties which require huge financial and human capital to own, digital assets are mostly intangible and operated in the online space and this requires very minimal capital to start and maintain.
Anyone with a smartphone/ laptop with internet access can build a digital asset in a few short months or a couple of years.
Income from digital assets is generated primarily through online activities such as advertising, affiliate marketing, subscriptions, sponsored content and product sales.
The value of digital assets has the potential significant growth with time and the tools required to maintain digital assets e.g domain names, hosting and basic digital marketing software are very affordable due to a variety of options available.
The Benefits of Digital Real Assets Include:
- Serve A Source Of Passive Income: Digital assets such as blogs, YouTube channels, e-commerce stores, social media profiles, email lists, mobile games, softwares and online courses are perfect for side hustles or an online business that will replace your main job. Once set up and established, digital assets will continue to provide you with income for decades to come.
- Provides Flexibility and Freedom: Owning digital real estate mostly affords you the freedom to work from anywhere and create your own schedule provided you have an internet connection. The elimination of a physical office means you can work from home, a cafe, a co-working space or even on the go. Business operations like content creation, website maintenance, and customer service can all be done irrespective of your location. You can decide to pack your bags and go on vacation to a different country and your digital asset will continue to pay you irrespective of where you are.
- They’re Highly Scalability: Digital assets are highly scalable with increased traffic and audience engagement. That means the more the traffic and engagement you can garner from your digital asset, the more revenue you are likely to make. This makes digital assets very valuable over time with an increase in traffic, audience or customers.
- Low Barrier to Entry: It doesn’t cost a fortune to start a digital real estate asset. You can start with cheap web hosting and affordable domain names and most platforms you will be needing to create a digital real estate asset such as WordPress, Youtube and Tiktok are mostly free. Others like Shopify and email marketing platforms offer a free trial for beginners. Also, there are simple DIY options for most digital platforms and if you cannot pay a professional to have them set things up for you, you can do it yourself while learning a skill you can render to others later in your journey.
My Favourite Types of Digital Assets
If you’re wondering what kind of digital asset you can create, here are beginner friendly digital real estate assets/businesses you can create. You don’t have to quit your main job to go all in on building your digital asset.
Rather you should treat it as a weekend project leveraging time and the skillsets and resources you’ve gained from your 9-5 to build something on the side. The more effort you put in your digital real estate, the more valuable it will likely become.
I will reveal 3 of my favourite digital real estate channels below. You can download the full list of digital real estate channels for beginners at the opt in form at the end of this article.
They include:
1. Blogs:
I love blogging because I own blogs and have benefited tremendously from owning them. The kind of blog that is very lucrative to own as a digital asset is called niche blogs. Blogging provides a wide array of monetization options once you can build significant traffic to them.
Monetization models available to blogs include revenue via ad networks such as Google Adsense, Mediavine, Monumetric and Ezoic. Other ways to monetize blogs include sponsored content, affiliate marketing selling digital products.
Blogging helps to build trust, establish your authority in a given niche and helps to build an engaging community.
By consistently creating high-quality content and leveraging various monetization strategies, bloggers can generate substantial and sustainable income, turning their blogs into valuable wealth-building assets.
2. YouTube Channels:
Starting a Youtube channel is free, and initial costs for equipment and software is relatively low.You can start to create videos with a smartphone and free editing software like Capcut.
Youtube has a global reach and once you are able to leverage Youtube SEO and create videos that people are searching for, the algorithm will help you to be discovered by a relevant audience. Just like blogs, Youtube has various models for monetization such as subscriptions, merch sales and ad revenue.
3. Offering Services Online:
The thing about the internet is that it has collapsed the world into a global village and if you have a relevant skill to offer, you no longer have to reply on people in your immediate locality as clients, rather you can leverage global platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork and Flexjobs to get clients from all around the world.
What can you do without much effort? What is that thing people are always asking you to do for them? Songwriting, video editing, data analysis, project planning, business analysis, creating art? Use these platforms to start getting clients and monetizing your talents.
Conclusion:
Everything I have told you in this article is possible and there are countless individuals who have leveraged digital assets to build wealth.
All you need to do is pick one digital business model out of the 3 I have mentioned above and start building it during the weekends by leveraging the skills and resources you have garnered from your main job.
Now, when you start to make money from your digital real estate asset, you take some of that money and invest it in a physical business to diversify and build income from both physical and digital assets to unlock the ultimate freedom.
I hope you have learned something new about digital assets and how anyone with an internet connection can leverage it irrespective of their location to build wealth.
If you have questions or need me to clarify further on any of the topics I have covered in this article, feel free to reach out or leave a comment and I will be happy to shed more light on any of the areas above.
Good luck and make sure you share this article and follow me for more updates on how to build a thriving online business without quitting your 9-5 job.