online money making
Whether you're looking to make some fast cash, or you're after
long-term, more sustainable income-producing results, there are
certainly ways you can make money online today. The truth is that making
money online isn't as difficult as most make it out to seem. It does
require some discipline. Sure. Without discipline, you'll find it tough to make a buck both online or offline.
However, if you're looking for realistic ways you can start earning money online
now, then it really truly does boil down to seven paths you can take
towards profit. Some will provide you with immediate results, helping
you to address your basic monthly necessities such as rent, utilities
and groceries, while others have the potential to transform your life by
revolutionizing your finances in the long term.
No matter what
method you select for generating your online income, there's one very
important thing to understand. Today, across this globe, with its 7+
billion inhabitants, there are two recurring things that people are
looking for more of. Either people want more time or they want more
money. The truth? Time is far more valuable than money. You can't
recreate time. Once it's spent, it's gone forever. Not money.
Money
can be earned and spent, saved and pilfered, invested and wasted. Not
time. That's why time is far more valuable than money. The point? When
you lack the luxury of time, making money online (or offline) can seem
like an impossible task. How are you supposed to do that when you're
working at a life-sucking nine-to-five job? While the stability of
full-time employment might allow most to sleep well at night, it doesn't
empower your creative juices to search for new income-producing
strategies.
Now, this isn't about some get-rich-quick method here.
If you want to get rich quick, forget about trying to do it on the
internet. Sure, Facebook ads are all the craze, but without a serious
understanding of the mechanics behind sales funnels and conversion optimizations,
which only comes after years and years of in-the-trenches work in the
internet marketing field, you're largely wasting your time trying to
"get rich quick."
How to Make Money Online
No matter what
method you end up using to generate an income on the web, you need to
adjust your mindset to help empower you rather than discourage you. The
truth? Making money online can be fraught with avoidable pitfalls.
There's no shortage to the rah-rah cheers of internet marketers looking
to find ways to ensure they part you from your hard-earned cash. The
trick? Cancel the noise and get to the real meat and potatoes, so to
speak.
To
do that, you have to harbor a few fundamental guiding principles in
your mind. Today, if you're at all serious about generating a full-time
income (and more) from your online activities, then you need to focus on
passive income
as opposed to active income. Sure, the active income will help you
survive. That's the scarcity mentality at play. But it's the passive income ideas that will help you thrive.
Considering
that you have a finite amount of time, passive income should make up a
large part of your work. And if you're serious about generating any
semblance of income online, then passive income should be one of your
sole goals and ambitions. Why? Simply this. Wouldn't you prefer to do
the work one time and get paid repeatedly as opposed to relying on your
time to generate that income?
Since time is the most precious
commodity on this earth, invest the time at the front-end so that you
can reap the benefits on the back-end. This means putting in a bit of
sweat equity and not getting paid today. Rather, you'll get paid
somewhere down the road. And you'll continue getting paid whether you
keep building that passive income stream or you stop. It's obvious that
this is the preferred route, but clearly the road less traveled.
Anyone
interested in making money online should be pursuing passive income,
while also working on active income. There are loads of ways to generate
an income passively on the internet, many of which start at the
foundation of having a blog, generating substantial traffic and building
an audience and a list. Is it easy? Nope. Is it worth it? It sure is.
But that doesn't mean you need to start a blog to make money online
today.
You
could opt for a non-blog-starting route. Sure. But if you're looking
for longevity in your income-producing abilities on the internet, then a
blog should be your primary aim.
Related: How Can App Makers Improve Revenue and Keep Users Engaged?
1. Leverage the app economy.
If
you're looking to address some immediate financial needs, then the app
economy is likely right for you. Thanks to the global sharing
phenomenon, launched in part by our smartphones and ever-burgeoning
global connectivity, you could easily opt for some quick active income
by using well-known apps. From ride sharing to deliveries and even quick
tasks, there's an app for that today, as the saying goes.
Drive for Uber or Lyft:
If you're in a locale where you can find Uber or Lyft (or even one of
the many competitors around the world such as China's Didi), you could
easily make a respectable income. The hours are flexible and you can
work as you see fit, making it perfect even if you currently have
full-time employment but are looking to make some money on the side.
Deliver for Postmates:
Apps like Postmates are a dime a dozen today. Still, Postmates is by
far the most popular, and you don't even need a car in some locations to
make money with this app. In some urban developments and major
metropolises like Manhattan, a bike would suffice.
iBotta:
Earn cash back rewards by purchasing featured products at major
retailers. All you have to do is add rebates, go shopping, then snap a
photo of your receipt to earn your cash back. Simple and effective. Plus
this app has over 50,000 five-star reviews on the App Store.
Task Rabbit: Another simple and straightforward app for making a bit of side-hustle income
is the Task Rabbit app. Tasks can be anything from simple repairs to
more exhaustive undertakings. The app carefully vets each service
provider to ensure the highest quality, and it's a great way to make
some extra income on the side on your own terms.
Ebates:
This app offers a simple way to make money online by buying whatever
you're already buying and then getting a cash-back reward. With eBates,
there's no scanning receipts. Simply click a link in the app and buy
from the store. You'll automatically be credited your cash rewards upon
purchase along with receiving an email confirmation.
Swagbucks: With
Swagbucks, there are a number of ways you can make money. You can shop
online, watch videos, answer surveys and surf the web. The app gives you
both cash back and gift cards as a reward for your efforts.
Inbox Dollars:
Another app you can use to make money online is Inbox Dollars, which
pays you for watching television, taking surveys and shopping. There are
cash offers here and it's relatively similar to some of the other apps
in this arena.
Related: What You'll Really Earn on Uber, Airbnb and TaskRabbit Every Month
2. Use existing websites.
You
could also opt to use existing websites for making money. These include
both active income and passive income methods. For example, you could
sell some used items or invest in creating some digital designs that
then can be sold on merchandise. Again, devote a sizable portion of your
time to passive income so that you can slowly build up earnings that
will arrive on autopilot without any extra added effort.
Of
course, a large portion of these sites do have their own respective
apps. But these are certainly less involved in the gig economy, and more
so in the longer term projects that exist in the fields of photography,
online marketing, graphic design and web development, for example.
Craigslist:
This site has been the go-to resource for over a decade now for people
that are looking to make a bit of extra money online. You can easily
sell your used stuff, rent out a spare room in your home or apartment,
and offer up your services to the world.
Upwork:
This website offers a great marketplace for selling just about any
professional service. You don't need a merchant account, website of your
own or anything else for that matter. All you need to do is be able to
provide a high-quality service at a reasonable price. But be informed,
you will have to compete with many others that are constantly bidding on
open jobs.
Cafe Press:
This website allows you to create digital designs that can then be sold
on the platform. You'll earn a commission for everything that sells and
you'll never have to deal with printing, warehousing, customer service
and so on. The site has over 2 million independent designers that have
created products being sold online here. If you have some graphic design
skills, then this is a great potential source for your
web-based income.
Fiverr:
Israeli-based Fivver was started in 2010 by Shal Wininger and Micha
Kaufam. It's a great resource for selling just about any service online.
You can offer gigs as low as $5 but also get paid much more for
upgrades and add-ons. There are plenty of providers earning 6 figures on
Fiverr so it's definitely a worthwhile cause for generating a healthy
income. Just ensure that you provide some serious value.
Mechanical Turk:
Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a resource for doing human-intelligence
tasks, or as the site commonly refers to them, HITs. You get paid a very
small fee for any given HIT and you'll need a good deal of volume to
make a substantial amount of money. But it is a resource you can use in
your spare time to generate a small income online.
Flippa: If you have a penchant for buying and selling, you could use Flippa, and its higher-end counterpart,
Deal Flow Brokerage
to buy and sell websites for a profit. You'll need to know what you're
doing here, but you could easily make a sizable income by flipping
income-generating websites for profit.
Etsy:
While Etsy's popularity has declined recently, it's still a great
resource for selling handmade items online. No need for complex
ecommerce sites or merchant accounts or any sort of automation. The
company takes a commission of every sale and charges a small listing fee
per item. But many still use Etsy as their primary source of income.
The best part is that you can also sell digital products on here such as
poster designs.
Shutterstock and iStockPhoto:
Have a keen eye for photography? Why not sell photos on some of the
leading photography sites. You'll need some design software skills to
tag along. But if you do have skill in this arena, it's a great
potential source for passive income.
Threadless:
Similar to CafePress, Chicago-based Threadless also allows you to sell
digital designs in the form of t-shirts and other merchandise such as
phone cases, mugs, beach towels and so on.
Zazzle:
Another great resource for selling online is to use Robert Beaver's
Zazzle. The site is somewhat similar to Etsy and virtually anyone can
make money online selling a variety of items here. From art to handmade
items and customizable products, you can pretty much sell anything here.
Related: 5 Ways to Make Enough Side Money to Eventually Quit Your Job
3. Sell your own stuff.
Ready
to enter the ecommerce fray? Why not sell your own stuff. Of course,
along with selling your own stuff on your own website comes a whole slew
of both responsibilities and technical configuration and requirements.
For starters, you'll need a website and a hosting account. You'll also
need a merchant account (sure you can use
Stripe or
PayPal). Then you'll need to design that site, build a sales funnel, create a lead magnet and do some email marketing.
You'll
also need ecommerce software, fulfillment software, worry about
warehousing, customer service, refunds and so on. But that's not all.
You'll also need traffic. Think search engine optimization,
Facebook ads, and other social media campaigns. Sound like a lot of
work? Sure, it is. Especially if you do it all on your own. You could
opt for Amazon's platform, which might be the easier route. But, then
again, at the end of the day, this is a serious business, which could
produce significant profits. So you're either all in or you're not.
Shopify Ecommerce: Want to build your own storefront? You could opt to create a Shopify store. You could also install
WooCommerce
as a plugin and run your ecommerce store from your blog. You'll need an
SSL certificate and a way to process payments, but you might find this
easier to get up and running fast to start selling immediately.
Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA):
You could easily start selling on the largest online store in the world
and forget all the muss and fuss about building out your own
infrastructure and worrying about traffic. You will need to pay a
commission, but most of the other processes will be automated for you.
Drop-shipping:
Amazon offers one form of drop-shipping, but there are other resources
for drop-shipping products that you'll never actually have to see or
handle yourself. You'll simply need to close the sale. Providers like
SaleHoo,
Worldwide Brands, and many others, offer you a great resource for drop-shipping your products.
High-ticket consulting or coaching:
You could sell your own high-ticket consulting or coaching products
from your website. You'll still need a website, merchant account, sales
funnel, lead magnet and many other items. But you can easily earn a
substantial amount of money from each individual customer, making it
well worth the arduous setup required.
Related: Making Money Online: 5 Major Online Selling Opportunities for Any Entrepreneur
4. Sell as an affiliate.
There are loads of resources for making money online as an affiliate. You could source products from
ClickBank,
Commission Junction,
Rakuten Marketing,
Share-a-Sale, Impact Radius
and many others. Plus, many of the larger companies have their own
affiliate programs as well. Do your due diligence and find the right
company with a relevant product or service to your audience that you can
sell as an affiliate.
In
some cases, you will need an active website with substantial traffic to
get approved. Selling as an affiliate isn't easy by any means, but if
you do have the audience, it can definitely amount to a substantial
amount of income.
Related: Why Affiliate Networks Are So Important to Online Affiliate Marketing
5. Start a blog.
If you're serious about making money online, start a blog.
Blogging is one of the easiest and most sustainable income sources. As
long as the blog is setup the right way, in the right niche, with the
right content targeted at the right audience, and the offer is
complementary to the content, you could make a tremendous amount of
passive income from a blog.
While some might think that starting a blog is
an arduous effort, when you understand the precise steps you need to
take, it becomes far easier. It all starts in the decision of choosing a
profitable niche and picking the right domain name. From there, you
need to build your offers. You can easily sell things like mini-email courses, full-blown trainings, ebooks, and so on.
Related: 6 Ways to Turn Your Blog Into a Money Maker
6. Email marketing.
The
money is most certainly in the list. If you're at all interested in
online marketing, setup email software and create a lead magnet that you
can use in your sales funnel. Then, build up that list. It's often said
that you can expect to earn about $1 per subscriber per month. If you
have a list of 10,000 subscribers, that means you can earn roughly
around $10,000 per month. You will need to deliver value and not pitch
them on every email, but it is a very achievable goal in a short period.
There
are many ways to get people onto your list. Lead magnets are one such
resource. For example, you can build ebooks, checklists and cheat
sheets. But you can also do content upgrades, such as PDF versions of an
article with added resources in them, four-part video training series,
and more. Think about your audience and what you can offer them to
better serve them, then treat them with some respect and you'll
eventually reap the rewards.
Related: One of Facebook's First Employees Explains Why Email Marketing Is Better Than Social Media Marketing
7. Webinars trainings.
Webinars
are quite possibly one of the most potent ways you can make an
exorbitant amount of money online. Russell Brunson often says that if
you do a webinar every single week for a year, you'll be a millionaire
at the end of it. You'll need an audience to train and you'll need to
know what you're talking about. Of course, this usually requires having a
website and some semblance of an online presence.
However, people
can still do webinars without all of that. For example, you might have a
sizable social media following and you train them every week on
something to do with social media. But you will need a product to embed
and sell at some point. Don't worry about it in the beginning. And by
far, the best webinar platform out there is certainly GoToWebinar. Hands down, there isn't even another platform that comes close.
However, not matter what method you choose to make money online, understand that you might be able to make some money fast,
but for the sizable returns, you'll need significant sweat equity.
However, a year from now, you'll be happy you started today. Remember,
time is far more valuable than money. Focus on creating passive income
streams that will free up your time so that you can quit the rat race and focus on the things that matter. That's the important thing here.
