These Teens Are Learning Highly Practical Digital Skills That Help Them Earn Extra Money & Start Their Own Online Businesses.
Are you worried about your teenager’s financial future?
There are many jobs today that will be replaced in the years ahead through AI and advanced technology.
So, it makes sense that our teenagers are equipped with the digital skills for the future, and to earn money online now.
Today we are joined by three of our younger Champions. These are all teenage students who learned their new digital skills with us here at the E-Business Institute.
One of them even earned $2,000 for his first paid website build!
WATCH THE VIDEO or read the transcript below to see how these teenagers are making money online using digital skills
Examples of our teenage students building profitable websites
Liz Raad: In today’s session, we’re going to introduce you to some young Champion students, because they are so inspiring.
We have these young people who are achieving amazing things at very tender ages. It puts us all to shame, doesn’t it?!
Matt Raad: Well, let’s show a couple of sites they’ve built. You’ve all got to see this.
Liz: Yes, let’s look at what the young Champions are doing.
Matt: These are the up-and-coming legends. Imagine if your kids are learning how to build websites for passive income?
How Liam is now making passive income from home while still at school…
Site #1 – Liam’s first monetised website built from scratch
Liz: This site was built by Liam, and it’s probably changed since then, hasn’t it, Liam? I didn’t take a new screenshot.
Matt: I did a private website renovation session the other day with Liam and his mum, Catherine, on this site.
What an awesome site, Best Motorbikes. Liam added an Amazon affiliate program for monetization, and it is growing.
This is a site that Liam just built from scratch. Why? Because obviously, he’s passionate about dirt bikes. Pretty cool.
Liz: Yep!
Site #2 – Liam built this website from scratch in just 43 minutes!
Matt: And this is his Urban Wheelbarrow website.
Liz: Now, Liam still holds the record for our fastest website build challenge.
We do a website build challenge each year in the Champions group, as you’ve heard. And in 43 minutes, Liam submitted this site.
Matt: It puts all us oldies to shame! And it’s a nice, simple website. That is pretty impressive.
So, Liam can build a website in 43 minutes. After hearing the details of our website challenge the other day, the minute he got off the webinar, he turned up with this.
That’s very impressive. He’s even included a bit of light keyword research, which was best wheelbarrows, best quality wheelbarrows, and wheelbarrows under $100.
Awesome!
Site #3 – Liam’s first paid local client website which earned him $2,000
Liz: Now, here’s Liam’s first paid website build he did for a local business.
Matt: He built this site a year later, now 15 years old. He has matured somewhat. You’re getting old Liam!
Can you see the difference in his journey? Look at this site, it is stunning. Go Liam, that is really well done.
Liz: And this client found Liam on their digital agency website.
Matt: Yes, they never met physically in person before. This was in lockdown during COVID. It’s not bad when you’re 15 years old, home-schooling, and earning $2,000 for building a website.
Liz: That’s awesome.
Matt: It beats working at Maccas any day, I reckon. That’s pretty cool.
Max uses his digital skills to earn money at home online with his mum
Site #1 – His first website build as a 15 year old
Liz: Here is mother-and-son team, Paulina and Max.
Max was 15 years old when he built this site about security systems with his mum. This is a great niche and a nice website design.
Site #2 – Max built a website for his digital agency business
Liz: Here’s one for their digital agency. I think Max chose the name RPM, which I love!
Matt: I love this site. Both Paulina and Max have a really good eye for building websites.
Young Champions Max and Liam are helping other students build their digital skills too!
Matt: Max and Liam are so active in our Champions Facebook community.
I don’t think half the Champions realize that Max is only 15 years old and he’s helping them out with all his technical stuff. Max gets on the Champion’s Facebook page and answers lots of questions.
I think some of you would’ve also seen him on our Digital Investors page too.
You’re about to meet Max soon, and you’ll see he’s only 15, and not an adult.
These teenagers are learning some incredibly valuable skills for their future. They now know how to make money building websites. Imagine learning those digital skills at the age of 15?
I wish I’d learned that at 15. It’s better than going to university, that’s for sure.
Liz: Well, there’s place for university as well. I’m not against university, but let’s add some extra skills to it.
Matt: That’s right.
Kristen’s first website build was multi-lingual and for a paying client
Liz: Now, this is one of Kristen’s first website builds and I love it. And it was in English and Chinese, so that’s pretty cool.
Matt: Oh! Thanks Nathan and Alexa – they just said to me on the side, “Matt, websites didn’t exist when you were 15!”
Liz: Well, they actually didn’t.
Matt: Oh my goodness, that’s true!
See how learning digital skills has changed the lives of our young teenage students
Liz: So, how about we meet these amazing young people and see how websites (and having this digital knowledge) has changed and affected their lives.
Welcome Kristin, Max and Liam.
Matt: Hello Max and Paulina.
Paulina: Hello.
Liz: All the way from Cairns.
Max: Yes, tropical Queensland.
Matt: And hello Catherine and Liam. How are you guys going?
Liam: We’re good, thank you.
Liz: Fantastic. Thanks so much for chatting with us today. We wanted to talk to you about the online journey as a teenager.
How Kristen started earning money online at just 15 years old
Liz: So, Kristen, we’ll start with you. How did you end up getting introduced to the world of websites?
Kristen: Well, I came along with my parents to the 3 Day Workshop for the first time when I was 12 years old.
My parents brought me along to learn how to become an online entrepreneur. For the first couple of years, I came along to the events and listened to the Digital Investor webinars. I would be in the background while my parents were playing them.
In 2017 I turned 15, and I started to realise that this was a pretty cool opportunity. I begged my parents if we could get on board with the Champions program. And it just kept going on from there. I built my first website, and eventually started getting paid clients on board. It just grew from there.
Liz: That is awesome, Kristin. And I’m so impressed to see how much you’ve grown over time from this shy, young teenager.
Kristen uses the skills she learned from Digital Investors to become a leader at business meetings and build her agency
Liz: Kristen is now part of a business networking group (BNI). And just like with Liam and Max in our Facebook group, Kristen is the go-to girl for websites in BNI with all these accountants and lawyers and other businesspeople.
And you have now taken on a leadership role with BNI too, haven’t you, Kristen?
Kristen: That’s right.
Someone asked me to join as a member, I thought, “Okay, I’ll give the membership a go, but that’s where I’ll stop. I’m not going to take on any leadership roles or anything like that.”
Then I was asked to become an ambassador for another BNI group. This means implementing different bits of feedback for the group, helping them develop, and being on the leadership team. So, I took that on, which has been really rewarding.
I was then asked to be the webmaster for my own BNI group, which means managing the social media presence. Being able to contribute to the leadership team has been good. It gives me more visibility of the BNI community as well.
Kristen went from a shy teenager to running one of Australia’s biggest pet directories!
Liz: That is fantastic. Did you think when you were 12 or 13 years old that you would be in that position?
Kristen: No, 100% not!
I remember when I first went along to BNI meetings, I was so out of my depth. I was thinking, “Why am I here? This is so daunting!
But I guess you just keep showing up, and over time you grow your comfort zone. That’s definitely what happened for me.
Liz: That’s what we admire so much about you, Kristen; you step up and you challenge your comfort zones. And we’ve seen you grow so much over these last years.
So, a massive congratulations to you. You have a huge future ahead of you too. Well done!
Matt: It’s so great you being in business with your mum and dad, and you guys are doing big sites as well.
Now you run this full-on award-winning Paramatta web design agency, plus you’ve got a big portfolio of sites, AND Australia’s biggest directory site when it comes to pets.
So, well done, it’s just amazing.
How Max uses his digital skills to sell websites for local businesses
Liz: So, Max, tell us about your journey. How did you get started? Was it the same as Kristen? Did mum drag you along, or did you want to come?
Max: Well, sort of! Mum was good friends with Julie, who was a previous Champions student. So, mum was the one who signed up for the Digital Investors Program.
She told me about buying websites for profit and how you can also build your own websites. So, she didn’t drag me; I wanted to go because I found it pretty interesting.
Liz: Awesome.
Max: I didn’t know anything about websites. I just liked technology and all the other stuff.
We went to the 3-Day Digital Investors workshop. I really liked how Matt and Liz Raad taught me how to buy and build websites for passive income. And we really enjoyed listening to all the amazing stories of other Champions and Digital Investor students and seeing their websites.
From there, we signed up for the Champions course, and it’s been amazing since then.
Liz: We’re super impressed, Max.
He used his new networking skills to JV with another Champion…
Liz: Max is awesome at challenging his comfort zone.
He always gets involved at the bootcamps. Max is going around, networking with all the other Champions. And you are now working with another Champion too, aren’t you?
Max: Yes, it was either the second or the third bootcamp and another Champion, Damen, introduced himself to me. We had a really good chat and caught up later on a Zoom call. We just clicked really well together, and we realised we both had the same interests.
Since then, I’ve built a few websites for him. He’s helped us out a lot too with some questions. And we’ve just developed a really good friendship over the last 18 months.
Liz: That’s awesome.
Matt: Both you and your mum build awesome websites.
Liz: You do, Max. Everyone is saying that. You guys build great websites.
Matt: Yes, they’re very beautiful websites. I’m very proud of Max and Paulina. The two of you have done so well. You must be very proud of Max.
Paulina: I am.
Matt: And I do love your leading Cairns Digital Agency website.
Liz: It’s a good name, Max.
Max launched a local business website within 24 hours…
Paulina: Max recently built a website for a local car mechanic.
Matt and Liz Raad gave the Champion students a 10-day website build challenge. As soon as Max heard the word “Challenge”, he jumped right on it. He started the build on Sunday and finished it on Monday.
Liz: So, he built the website in 24 hours?
Paulina: Yes, in 24 hours. Was it Gold Coast Mechanic?
Max: It’s called Gold Coast Mobile Automotive.
The challenge was around 3 months ago, and I was just getting into cars. I’m getting a bit older now, and my brother and my dad are getting into cars a lot.
When the challenge came up, I looked at YouTube videos of cars and then said, “All right, a cool challenge.” I wanted to do this for a local, so I looked around for a mobile mechanic or mobile auto electrician.
I did some keyword research and researched the competitors in that space. I got really into it, so I bought a domain, set up hosting and then the WordPress platform. I could do these steps in about an hour once I knew how to do them.
…This website now generates online traffic for a local mechanic
Liz: Was this a paid job, Max?
Max: No, it was for the website challenge.
Liz: But it was for a local business, didn’t you say?
Max: Yes, we use it to generate leads for a local mechanic.
Liz: I see.
Max: We built the website using the Divi theme because we love it so much.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen the recent theme update, Matt, but Divi is a lot faster these days.
Matt: At long last!
I’m not always a fan of Divi, but you’re going to be right, especially now it’s getting faster.
Max: Yes, so I built that one. To be honest, I haven’t put as much effort as I should, but that will be the goal over the next year or so to get it up and running properly. When I look at the competition for that niche, it’s very low, so that’s exciting.
Liz: You’ll do well out of that. That’s fantastic, guys.
Wow. Imagine having the digital skills at the age of 15, to be able to build a website within a day.
If Max, Kristen, or Liam has an idea, they can just launch it into life straight away and create money. They can build websites for local businesses and sell them.
Should teenagers be developing their digital skills and building websites?
Liz: What’s your biggest tip for people when they first get started online? Should a young person do this? Is it a worthwhile journey?
Why digital education has set her son up for life…
Paulina: I think it’s the best decision for parents to involve their kids into digital programs and building websites. This is the future.
If I can do it again for my other son, then I would because it’s life skills and what every child should know with digital world growing so quickly.
One of the best decisions I have ever made was joining the Champions program and involving Max in the program. He’s now set up for life.
If he had the same mindset today in the next couple of years, he would be very successful. I know that. He’s developing his digital skills, and he’s growing. He’s becoming more mature every month.
So yes, this was one of the best decisions. And if we can join it for another year and another year and another year, we’ll be with you guys.
Liz: That’s great! We would love to have you back on board. You are both amazing members of the community.
This teenager saw how her new digital skills are compounding into the future
Liz: And Kristen, how about you?
Kristen: I would definitely say that getting into this at a young age is a great opportunity.
I never take it for granted that I get to learn these digital skills.
Yes, my parents brought me along to the events, but it was important that I made the decision myself to pursue it. It wasn’t forced onto me to do it.
You just need to keep showing up, and you realize how cool of a skill this is.
When you’re just starting out, pick something and implement one action every day. Just keep showing up because it compounds over time, and then you look back and realise, “Oh, I’ve come a long way!”
That’s the importance of showing up and keeping consistent.
Liz: Awesome, very wise words, Kristen.
Want to learn more about how these teenagers buy and build websites for passive income?
Liz: Well, thank you Kristen, Max, and Liam. Well done to all of you. Congratulations.
Kristen: Thank you.
Liz: Fantastic. Aren’t they beautiful? They’re so inspirational.
Matt: They are amazing.
Liz: I love it.
Matt: And awesome parents too!
Liz: Yes, of course.
Matt: Good shout out to the parents. Amazing.
If you want your teenagers to learn how to buy & renovate websites for passive and semi-passive income, attend our free website investing masterclass here.
