How to Get Paid for What You Know: Turning Your Knowledge, Passion, and Experience into an Online Income Stream in Your Spare Time

Well ... If you're like me ... You've probably seen hundreds of these internet "gurus" clogging up your facebook feed with gimmicky ads, promising to show you how to make a million dollars a week in passive income, while you sip martinis in the Bahamas, cruising around on your 30 million dollar yacht, just watching the money rolling in without you having to do anything. All because you bought their course once. Mmm hmm ... Sure. Well ... When I came across Graham's youtube channel a few years ago, I had the same type of skepticism. His video popped up in my "Suggested Videos" feed on youtube, and I was like, "Here we go. Another 'guru' with some gimmicky click-bait youtube video." Against my better judgment, I decided to click on the video. (it had a great headline). To my surprise, it was actually pretty helpful. No hype. No empty promises. No fluff or pressure trying to get you to join a webinar. Just actual, honest value. I was actually kinda impressed. Well ... One video turned into two videos, and two eventually turned into 50. In fact, I held out for the first 20 videos or so *NOT* wanting to opt-in for his free training because I knew once I got on his email list, then he'd really "have me by the you-know-whats" and blast me with every offer he could muster. But ... He didn't. No spammy, sleazy, "spots are going fast" type of offers. Just an honest, straight-forward invitation to take his course. I didn't buy it. But I appreciated how he made the offer. It felt good. After passing on the offer, I just went on with my life. But ... I'll be honest ... In the following weeks, I was sleeping with one eye open just waiting for the barrage of emails to "follow up" with me as to why I didn't buy his course. But ... To my surprise ... There were none. Like ... none. At this point, I'm super confused. "He's not even going to TRY to beat me over the head for passing up on his course?" He didn't. In fact ... The next email I got from him was a week later that simply announced the new youtube video he published. I watched it. And it was good. Then, another week goes by, and finally here comes another email from Graham ... to watch his newest youtube video. I'm like ... "Is he seriously not going to make any more offers?" No upsell? No down-sell? No all-around sale? No blowing up my inbox 5 times a day telling me "prices are going up at midnight"? Nope. Just one helpful, free youtube video per week. Fast forward ... The more I kept learning from Graham, the more I wanted to keep learning from Graham. In fact ... After a few months of getting tons of value from his free youtube stuff ... I actually went back to my email and dug through my inbox trashcan to find the original email he sent out for his online course so that I could find the link to buy it. After rummaging through the trash ... I found it. Put in my card information. And I bought his course. ... Wow. Really, really good. I continued following Graham online for a couple of years ... And, in many ways thanks to Graham, I have gone on to successfully launch my own online business, run my first paid coaching program, booked my first high-paying coaching clients, and have put together a course of my own that now runs on auto-pilot for me through Kajabi. So ... A few months ago, I heard Graham was publishing a book about "How to Get Paid for What You Know". Without hesitation ... I bought it. I read it. And as I have now come to expect ... It's pure gold. Clear, concise, and cuts out all the fluff. Just a simple, straight-forward, step-by-step plan to get you from A to Z in starting, launching, and scaling a successful online business. The truth is ... Even though I am already familiar with a lot of the content in the book ... I still found myself turning page after page, as if reading many of these things in a completely new way. It brought to light things I didn't realize, and also reminded me of things I already knew but wasn't actually doing. To be real with you ... This book is not for people who want to get rich QUICKLY or EASILY. This *IS* for people who want to get rich ... but not quickly or easily. You aren't going to become a millionaire overnight - or maybe not even within the first year or two. But the plan Graham lays out in the book ... ACTUALLY WORKS! So ... If you're looking for the purest, most straight-forward plan to finally launch a successful, passive-income-generating, online business ... Without wasting a bunch of money on ads (like I have) ... Without wasting a bunch of your time doing things that don't actually work ... And without getting burnt out in your business before you even get started ... This book is for you. If you want to do online business the right way, the first time, and take the simplest path possible ... I can think of no better resource on the planet than Graham and his book - "How to Get Paid for What You Know". I hope this review was helpful. - Jason

I can't recommend Graham's book enough. It can be overwhelming to figure out what online business books are legit out there and which ones are nonsense. Graham is the real deal. I read this book in one weekend (mainly on a flight home) -- Graham puts into one book a straightforward blueprint for building an actual, viable online business. This is not get-rich-quick nonsense. Graham teaches you how to identify a profitable idea for an online content-based business. I love that he actually breaks down where to do research and how to do research. He doesn't skip any steps in helping you figure out--from ground zero--what to do and where to go. Graham teaches you how to use the strategy of content marketing to grow warm leads and build an actual audience that you can offer quality digital products to one day (in some cases, just after 30 days of up-front effort). He spends time explaining the blocking-and-tackling of automating your online business (through things like automatic e-mail funnels and lead generation) so that you can sell your quality digital products literally while you sleep... Again, this is a book about actually building an online business that has a strong foundation -- if you're looking for get-rich-quick guru stuff, look elsewhere. Also, I really appreciated that the book begins and ends with mindset and overcoming fear of starting... Graham breaks down common doubts about starting an online business (things I can seriously relate to). Graham also is not shy about sharing his story throughout the book. Overall, I strongly enjoyed reading this book. More importantly, this is graham's best teaching on this topic packaged in one single book (I've followed his podcast, but this resource is invaluable). I underlined it. I dog eared it. I will come back to this as a reference (and already have).

I am 72 and know a lot! I have the Audio and I always like to have the printed copy for notes. Yellow pads are old school! Great book and I am always learning. Key Takeaway: The book is highly regarded for its accessibility—Cochrane emphasizes that you don’t need a huge team or a massive budget to start. It is particularly useful for those looking to transition from trading time for money to building a business that offers more personal and financial freedom.

Of all the marketing and business books I've read, this is the one I've resonated with the most in terms of how Graham thinks about online business, the business model he uses, and his focus on service and giving. One of the biggest things I appreciate is that he doesn't try to tell you you're going to succeed quickly just because that's what we all want to here. He says this model takes time, but slow growth will lead to sustained success. The foundation of the model is content marketing, meaning publishing high value content on a regular basis for the entire lifetime of your business - meaning YEARS. He isn't saying to just set up a funnel, run some ads, and you'll strike it rich. He's saying to build a long term, sustainable business by giving first in the form of free content, which can take a while to build traction, but once it does, you have the foundation of a very powerful and sustainable business. His model is in line with the adage "give first before you try to get," and I resonate strongly with this. The book is also highly actionable, with action steps at the end of each chapter. You can easily treat this book like a course. Right now I'm focusing on writing for my blog and building my audience, and it feels amazing. Thanks Graham for putting together this methodology and teaching it to all of us. I've never felt more clear about what I need to do in my business right now and how I'm going to grow it over the long term and serve tons of people.

I didn’t finish this book yet but at 75% I can say I have a jist of what’s yet to come; I wanted to pop in and tell everyone that I really enjoyed it. I found his personal story very inspirational, as there were parts I relate to so hard. I heard it on the Futur podcast with Chris Do, which is what lead me to this book. It’s very simple, in terms of book length and overall readability. I felt like there were bits of information I already knew, but presented in this context they gave me a boost of confidence—like “wow! I know all these concepts, It must mean I’m ready” Thanks, Graham I will be putting this information into good use.

I follow Graham since 2013. His first business Recording Revolution taught me how to record and mix music, Graham made me trust in myself and showed that it’s possible to create great sounding music on cheap equipment. Now I’m a professional music producer, worked on multiple big artists in Russia! And I created music for McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Jameson ads! I’ve been following his second YouTube channel “Graham Cochrane” from the start in 2018 too, and bought some of his courses. Graham has a talent of simplifying all the hard stuff, and it’s a much needed approach in this time! Because there’s so much unnecessary information out there. I’ve been lucky to read the book before its release, being a student of Graham’s exclusive community. I recommend this book to anyone who’s serious about creating content and online courses/memberships! Don’t buy this book if you’re not planning to take action and change your life for better! But if you do, the book is a step by step guide: from picking your niche, to finding your audience, to email marketing, to course launch! The only con for me is that I learned almost nothing new, just reminded myself of everything that I learned from Graham’s YouTube channel, podcast and courses. It’s the same information, maybe rephrased with some new examples, but the core is the same. Even though you can always revisit this information from a new perspective every year! Gonna reread book for many times and apply everything again and again! Thank you Graham!

TL;DR: Buy this book. Follow it to a T. Make necessary tweaks and adjustments along the way. You can ACTUALLy do this. I have followed Graham for years now and, because of him, made the plunge a little over a year ago to start my own online business teaching in the audio production space. I jumped at this book and read the whole thing cover to cover in just 2 sittings. It's easy to read yet full of clear, actionable steps (talk about a winning combo) to build a business based around the knowledge you already have! Maybe the best part about this book and Graham's approach to business is that it has 0 of the sleazy, smarmy sales approach many of the other people in the business space encourage. It's all about generosity and adding genuine value to the world. I transitioned to my business full time in January of this year and doubt I'll ever look back. If you are looking for a life change, get this book and go for it.

I've been following Graham's YT channel for a while and I really like his content. I bought the book to both support him and also learn something new which he may not have mentioned in his videos, but unfortunately I am not that excited with the outcome. The book is great for people who have no knowledge of selling knowledge (like courses) online and he does talk a lot about the benefits and theories of the practice. But he doesn't go into too much detail or talk much about real life examples. There are no technical explanations for setting up a website and he skims through copywriting/email marketing and anything else to be honest. While he encourages people to not falter and get started, we needed a more detailed explanation on the 'how's' instead of lots of encouragement and little real explanation.

I have implemented only about 30% of what the author recommends, and I am already seeing positive results in my online business. Thanks Graham!

Practical, easy to follow and very helpful. I will read it again as I first needed to have the big picture. Must read

I'm only at chapter and already loving it! Graham delivers such valuable content for every aspiring online entrepreneur.

Well worth the small investment for detailed, practical advice. Especially liked the advice on which steps in what order. Recommend!

Si vous souhaitez mettre en place un business en ligne pour aider vos clients à travers une/des formations, ce livre vous permettra de savoir comment procéder, étape par étape (hors formalités éventuelles dans la domaine de la formation professionnelle car ceci dépend du pays où vous êtes basé). Facile à lire, même si vous n'êtres que niveau intermédiaire en anglais , je pense.... clairement expliqué, pas de complications.... et pratique avec des actions à faire à votre propre vitesse.... ce qu'il faut quand on veut avancer plutôt que rechercher des informations à droit et à gauche en ligne. De plus, vous pouvez apprendre en parallèle et 'connaître' son auteur à travers sa chaîne YouTube 'Graham Cochrane' ou son podcast (en anglais).