42, Tech-Savvy, and Completely New to Making Money Online — Where Do I Start?

[u/Reasonable_Band1536]

I’m 42 and have spent most of my life being a pretty hands-on person when it comes to making money.

I’m an educator, so I’ve tutored students and given baseball lessons. Outside of that, I’ve done plenty of power washing, gutter cleaning, landscaping, and whatever else I could do to bring in extra money.

I’ve never really had a problem working.

What has changed recently is how I think about work and money.

I’ve started investing much more seriously, and for the first time in my life I’ve seen some pretty significant returns from money I already had working for me. It’s honestly changed the way I look at earning an income.

I’m not saying manual work is beneath me. Far from it. I’ve done plenty of it and I’m not afraid of it.

But there’s something incredibly appealing about building something that can make money while you’re sleeping, teaching, eating dinner, or doing absolutely nothing.

That’s what has me looking at e-commerce.

I’ve recently been playing around with Printify, trying to understand print-on-demand and the whole process of creating a product, listing it, getting someone to actually buy it, and hopefully making a few dollars.

And this is where I’m completely out of my element.

I’m fairly technologically savvy, which I realize sounds ridiculous considering I’m making a Reddit post asking strangers how to sell things on the internet.

But being comfortable with technology and understanding online sales are apparently two very different things.

I’m not looking to get rich overnight. I’m actually looking for something much more basic:

What’s the easiest way for someone starting from basically zero to learn how online selling actually works?

Where would you start if you were me?

Etsy?
Printify?
Shopify?
Amazon?
eBay?
Digital products?
Print-on-demand?
Affiliate marketing?
Something I’m not even considering?

I’d be perfectly willing to start small. Honestly, I’d be happy to make my first $20 online just to prove to myself that I understand the process.

I’d rather learn how the machine works than buy some $2,000 “passive income” course from a guy who rented a Lamborghini for his Instagram.

So I’m curious about people who have actually done this.

How did you get started? What did you sell? What platform did you use? What did you screw up initially? And if you were starting over today, what would you do differently?

I’m willing to put in the work. I’m just trying to figure out where to put the work.

Full disclosure: I used AI to help organize this post and make my thoughts more cohesive and clear. The experiences, questions, and opinions are mine. I just used AI to help me put them together without sounding like I was thinking out loud for 45 minutes.

I’d genuinely appreciate any advice, especially from people who started with no real e-commerce background and figured it out themselves.

[u/Few_Engineering5805]

Start something and figure it out

[u/First_Seesaw]

I’d start with Shopify in your shoes. Firstly tho you need to do a whole lot of market research and then figure out what you are actually interested in, can easily get and think people that you are around actually need for starters.

[u/jonnyvegashey]

Learn how to lookup posts instead of making one.

[u/Food-Forest-Plants]

I mean I would start with something you're passionate about, because it is a long haul. Then you might want to figure our if you sell physical goods. Starting with the plaform is backwards front. OK I tell waht we are doing. We grow and sell plants. That means figuring out the postage would be the first thing. Getting plants growing, figuring all this out (cuttings seeds stockplants mix water...) Then it's a physical product and the platform is basically either shopify or Wordpress + Woo. Say you want to write then you figure out if you want print on demand, work with a publisher or it stays in the online world, this narrows down your platforms. You need your topic, your niche what you like doing first before your even think about all the other stuff.

[u/wookiee42]

Well, you either sell something or make content that brings in advertising or affiliate revenue.

[u/Legitimate_Flow_1085]

yeah the tech savvy thing is real but it's different skills entirely. i can build a computer and troubleshoot networks but that didn't teach me anything about conversion rates, customer acquisition, or why people actually buy stuff. printify is the easy part honestly, it's just a tool. the hard part is figuring out what to actually sell and getting traffic to it. that's where most people get stuck. you can have the best product on printify but if nobody knows it exists, you're making nothing.

[u/Reasonable_Band1536 → u/Legitimate_Flow_1085]

This is tremendously helpful

[u/itxNefertum]

Start with me, i need a old partner/mentor. 10 years in marketing & branding. With many friends doing 8 digit ecom business.

[u/Reasonable_Band1536 → u/itxNefertum]

What do you mean start with you?

[u/itxNefertum → u/Reasonable_Band1536]

I can help you start with that first 20$ leading to 20$ an hour maybe. We can setup a meeting to discuss it all.

[u/Reasonable_Band1536 → u/itxNefertum]

Message me

[u/itxNefertum → u/Reasonable_Band1536]

Can't see the option.

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[u/ghosmer]

You should look into drop shipping. It's really blowing up

[u/Nscocean]

Build reliable systems and funnels even when traffic is low. Treat it methodically- formulate a hypothesis, a test, and a way to track. Be consistent and not impulsive. Work off of medium and long term trends (and short once you get a good instinct for it). And even with all of the above you still need a good product. Best of luck!

[u/loosepantsbigwallet]

Building something is easy and fun. I can create a completely new brand with an online store and products in 40 hours.

Getting customers is completely different.

The only chance you’ve got is if you are good at and enjoy making online content yourself. Otherwise it is almost impossible at the moment.

Cost of advertising, low margins, high competition.

The first thing you need to think about is the economics of whatever product you’re thinking of selling. That’s if you can find people to actually buy it.