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Do you need an audience to make money online?

2026-10-25 · Short · Ali · recording, 1:10 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship · mode: Answering questions · tags: His own products discussed

Ali says you do not need an audience to make money online, only a way to find people who will pay: he guesses fewer than 1% of online businesses start with an audience, and an audience speeds things up but is not needed to start.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Do you need an audience to make money online; the VoicePal pre-order beta

  • ★★★ Ali says you do not need an audience to make money online; what you need is a way to find people who will pay you for your thing. — 00:00:00

    “you don't need an audience to make money online.”

  • ★★ According to Ali, sensible founders of online businesses without an audience come up with an idea, validate that a market exists and speak to many people in the target market. — 00:00:13

  • ★★ Ali's team launched VoicePal by offering pre-orders of an early, rough beta at half price in return for feedback; most of his audience did not download it, but the few pre-sales showed the market existed. — 00:00:29 · VoicePal
  • ★★ Ali calls the VoicePal launch a bad example because he already had an audience; without one, he says, finding those first buyers would have been hard. — 00:00:44 · VoicePal
  • ★★ Ali estimates that fewer than 1% of online businesses started out with an audience first, and 99% did not. (hedged) — 00:00:46
  • ★★ Many online businesses try to build their audience second, Ali says: an audience speeds up the process and is helpful to build over time, but is not needed to get started or to learn the skills. — 00:00:58

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: VoicePal

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