Chapter 1: What outdated methods should I avoid for making money online in 2026?
I know for a fact that you're tired of searching the internet for the best ways to make money online. Every day, thousands of internet gurus tell you to try affiliate marketing or drop shipping, and they're all full of shit. Those things don't work in 2026, especially not in the new era of AI. In my AI venture studio, Martell Ventures, I've created dozens of companies that now generate millions.
And I can tell you, there's only a few real ways to make money online. To make it simple, we're breaking everything into four buckets. Trash, the stuff you should run away from. Easy, businesses you can launch in under three months, earning five to 10K a month. Medium, skills that can be profitable within a year, making 10 to 50K a month.
and hard long-term plays that may take more time, but can make you millions if done right. I'll tell you the income potential difficulty, how long it'll take to make money and who is best for each bucket. So without further explanation, let's get into the real ways to make money in 2026. Welcome to the Martell Method.
I went from rehab at 17 to building a $100 million empire and being a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate. My bestselling book, Buy Back Your Time, is out now. Grab a copy at buybackyourtime.com or at any of your preferred online retailers.
Starting with bucket number one, the trash bucket.
The income potential for this bucket is zero or even worse, could be negative. Difficulty? I mean, it looks easy, but it gives you nothing back. Time frame? Waste months before you realize it was dead on arrival. Who is it best for? No one. NFT flipping. The hype is frigging done.
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Chapter 2: What are the four buckets for categorizing money-making strategies?
Look at all the projects that launch. Nobody made money. The ones that thought they made money have lost money. And if you're going to start there and you haven't made money ever online, that's a losing recipe. Next, crypto trading. Moves really fast. Most people don't have the patience and it's without any crazy skill.
Unless you're the person that tries to front run the whole frigging trade, most people lose money every frigging day. Next, multi-level marketing.
If the way you make money is getting paid to recruit people to join your thing and you don't shape the business and you don't actually sell anything and you actually spend more money to buy product to try to get up the leaderboard, that's not a business you want to be in. Most of these are scams. Next, basic caption or subtitles. Now, AI does it faster, cheaper, and way better.
After that, we have low-level data entry. This is wild to watch if people still think they're going to make money on this, because AI tools have replaced this work completely. Fiverr Microtasks, my favorite website on the internet, five years ago. Trying to make money this way? Hmm. It's not the worst on the list, but it has zero long term growth. Next, we got print on demand. Here's the thing.
It's really crowded and everyone sells the same stuff. And last but not least, my favorite day trading. Here's the deal. If you're not completely into it, obsessed on it and just want to just live the day trading life, it is way easier to lose money than to make any. Basically, all these are like trying to race across the ocean in a car. You keep drowning because you need a different vehicle.
So to make sure your idea isn't in this bucket, I need you to run your idea through the trash filter. Three simple questions. One, is AI already replacing this? Two, is the industry shrinking or going obsolete? Three, is it easier to lose money than to make money? If you answer yes to any, move on immediately. Now, let's talk about the first bucket that actually pays real money.
Bucket number two, easy bucket. The income potential, five to 10K a month, no problem. The difficulty, low, simple skills, fast turnaround, timeframe, 30 to 60 days to actually get paid. And it's best for beginners trying to gain some momentum and build some skills.
you don't need a degree for these these just need basic execution and learning how to talk to customers just get your first dollar online build some confidence and learn how clients work here are some examples the first one basic short form editing if you haven't seen all the people that have like these clipping accounts and people like edit these short form videos all over social media i mean the demand is huge every person now seems to be a content creator
And AI makes it incredibly easy. So it's easy to get paid fast. Love this one. Next, we got social media copywriting. Every business in the world needs to learn how to use words to get customers to buy and they need somebody to help them. And the tools are getting so good. Just get the client, do the work, get paid. Next, we've got the AI chatbot setup for small businesses.
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Chapter 3: What are the risks of the 'trash' bucket in online income?
See, rich people hate wasting time and they'll pay you to get it back. The best part is you get paid to hang out with smart people that can teach you about life to help them get shit done. No brainer. A great example of this bucket is my buddy Mark. No background, no experience.
He decides to start approaching companies to help them take long form content that they were creating, using AI to break it down into short form clips. And that simple process of using AI tools, making it repeatable and turning around really quick has scaled now, whereas a freelancer, he earns $30,000 a month with only seven clients.
This bucket is about learning how to master a high income skill, because if you already knew how to make millions, you'd be making millions. which means you're gonna have to invest in yourself to develop the skills to add value to the world. If you wanna try any of these ideas, follow these specific steps. First, create your outcome-based offer. Don't sell your time.
Map to a pain the customer already has. Help them make money or save time around an area that they're really in pain around. Because pain is a perfect way to figure out what they're willing to pay for. Make a promise that's specific around a result in a very specific timeframe. That's how you create a compelling offer. And then just remove all the risks. Just tell them what the guarantee is.
And then say, because it's just you, you can only take so many clients. So I'm only looking for three or five clients that creates urgency and it'll get them to buy right away. And for what it's worth, if you want to make this super easy, I can send you my exact offer template. So all you have to do is copy and paste it. It'll save you hours of tweaking and adjusting and testing.
Just DM me the words YouTube offer on Instagram or click the link in the description below and I'll send it over. So once you have your offer, just do one daily outreach. That's a non-negotiable. If you want to make money online, set it and forget it. It's just a habit. So reach out to one potential client every day until you get customers, but you just have to have a clear offer.
That's what this bucket will teach you. That skill of crafting an offer, getting somebody to understand it and paying you. This will get you the best chance to be successful in this bucket. That being said, if you already have experience or you want income that's more consistent, the medium bucket might actually be better choice.
Before we get back to the episode, if you want to jumpstart your week with my top stories and tactics, be sure to subscribe to the Martell Method newsletter. It's where you'll elevate your mindset, fitness, and business in less than five minutes a week. Find it at martellmethod.com. Bucket number three, the medium bucket. Essentially the income potential is 10 to 50K per month minimum.
Difficulty level, it's medium, but multi-scale work tied to real business outcomes makes you money. You're not just doing tasks anymore. You're solving revenue and growth problems for businesses. And the timeframe to make real money could be three months, maybe worst case 12 months, but you're setting up your future. And it's best for people that have some skill but want more stability and scale.
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Chapter 4: How can I quickly earn money in the 'easy' bucket?
It takes commitment. It takes dedication. You got to be consistent. Most people would rather take the easy way. That's why it's in the hard bucket. Next, we've got subscription communities powered by AI curation. I've seen so many of these online communities now where essentially people pay every month to be part of a group so that they have access to knowledge and experience.
And the AI is designed to answer their questions, to support them. It's faster, it's easier, and you can build a business from it. And last, licensing AI playbooks. This is where most companies don't realize their system prompts is their new IP, their intellectual property.
So if you have a business that has created these playbooks that are AI powered, you can copy paste those and sell them to other businesses by making them passive income. Like just go look at all the custom GPTs you can buy. A lot of people are like creating innovation inside their own business and licensing it to other companies and making a ton of money.
This is a really cool one that I think a lot of people are sleeping on it. The hard bucket is near and dear to my heart because it's a reflection of my life. I mean, a lot of people see me today and they see all the success and the accolades, but they don't know where I started.
I started as a software programmer at 17 writing code, and it took me almost seven years to finally find any software, any traction, what I was doing. And eventually at 28, I sold my company and I became a multimillionaire. And it's the thing that ultimately made me financially successful.
But better than anything, it created the confidence in my abilities that I could then apply to my other companies. So don't forget, you don't get the hockey stick without the flat first year. So you have to learn how to invest and reinvest and recommit if you ever want to be successful. Here's how you do this for yourself step by step. One, tie your strongest skill to a fast growing industry.
If you don't know what that is, ask AI. It'll tell you. Second is systematize your service. Don't sell your time. Sell an outcome so that you can build the system around delivering that outcome and create automation so it's systematized. Third is build a small team slowly. Surround yourself with killers. I believe the first 12 people that come into your business will dictate your success.
You want to be slow on making sure they're the right fit for what you're trying to do. And for what it's worth, avoid adding headcount where AI could do the job for you. Number four, layer AI into your operations to increase your margins. Get rid of the costs. Get AI to build that automation. And last, use content to create inbound deal flow.
If I would have known when I started creating content that not only would bring opportunities to me, but it would bring talent, it would bring friendships, it would bring invites of things that you couldn't even pay for, I would have started a long time ago. So no matter what you decide to do in this bucket, just make sure you create content around it.
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