Ready to take the plunge and actually make some online money? Here are 7 ways of getting started RIGHT NOW!
Online income
The purpose of this article is to show you that there are a ton of ways of making money online. We live in a great time where anybody can make a decent income and more, just from sitting at home on a computer in their underwear!
That doesn't mean that making the money is easy though, work is still required, these are not get rich quick schemes!
Just starting out with your online journey?
Well then find something from this list and get started.
It really is the best way to learn.
First hand experience at anything, even if it fails is priceless.
I have personally tried every one of these methods with varying results. Some work much better for me than others. You will of course have different results.
You can ponder what to do for a lifetime and think of every reason under the sun why something won't work. You have to start somewhere so make a start on your online income journey right now!
1. Selling a service
This is a popular way of making money online, probably because of the low barrier to entry. Although this entirely depends on what kind of skill set you have and what you want to offer.
The idea is that you find something you are able to do that other people will pay for.
Easy huh!
A simple way to get started is to head over to micro transaction sites like fiverr.com and offer a service for $5.
That doesn't seem a lot of money!!??
It's not, but create a good service that people want and repeat it many times and it can be! Lots of people make a full-time living from so called micro-entrepreneurship. If you want to know more about selling on fiverr we have an article that covers it in much more detail.
Broadly speaking there are 2 types of reasons buyers require services online:
They don't have the time to do something, or they don't have the skill set to do something
People have little time so if they can farm something out to somebody else for a cost that seems reasonable then they will. If you can do that job efficiently for many people for a decent return then well done, you've started an online business for yourself.
Owning a desirable skill is the key to charging much more for your services. If you can write web programs or consult on somebodies business, people are going to pay a lot more for you if you are at a senior level.
As with offline services, to ultimately get ahead you need to become good at marketing yourself and gain trust and positive feedback from doing a good job.
PROS
- Extremely low barrier to entry. People pay for things that they don't want to do and you can get started on micro transaction sites like Fiverr right away.
CONS
- Getting to a point where you can earn a substantial income requires having a decent skill set which can take time to acquire.
- If you sell your own time for money, you only have so many hours in the day in which to deliver. Regular readers of this site will know that we preach that forms of passive income are more desirable if they can be obtained.
2. Sell products on eBay
The online auction site is probably the first thing many people would think of when thinking of ways to make money online.
Yes everybody knows you can make money on eBay.
But, there is a huge difference to selling your old shoes on eBay and making good money from the site.
Powersellers have learned that eBay can be extremely lucrative.
As with traditional 'market' models the key to eBay is to sell an item for more than you have paid for it. Well obviously!...
Finding products at a low price can be half the battle.
Some hobbyists will hunt for bargains in local thrift stores/charity shops and auction them off. More seasoned sellers will buy in bulk from China from websites like Ali Baba at a low cost.
If you want a simple technique to get you started making some easy profits then check out our article on eBay & Amazon dropshipping (buying items from Amazon cheaply and selling them for profit on eBay)
PROS
- You can start selling your own personal unwanted items to get started making some easy cash
- If you have your own product to sell, eBay can be a good tool to sell your items. Depending on what you are selling you might want to check out sites like etsy etc
CONS
- Scaling up to becoming a powerseller can take time and a lot of energy. You need to have good wholesale contacts to get cheap products and you need a keen eye for what sells well. The site also has many intricacies and ways of doing things. You will need to become an eBay expert to compete with the competition!
3. Start a blog and monetize it
There is a reason why a lot of people preach that starting a blog can be a great way of earning income.
You get to spend time writing and educating people about a subject that you love.
That is not to say that everybody writes blogs about the things they actually enjoy though. Some have spotted niche markets and write blogs about obscure topics purely because they can monetize them. I have spent time writing blogs like this and let me tell you:
It's no fun!
Being passionate about something shows in people's writing. It also plays a key part in whether you will actually keep the blog going. You are also going to need a good knowledge about the subject you want to write about, if you are taking on a niche you know little about then study up first or outsource the articles.
The key to blogs is keeping readers engaged and delivering good content. If you have a large following then monetizing the website soon follows.
There are several ways you could monetize your blog:
You might write reviews about something and include an affiliate link to the product you mentioned. An affiliate link kicks you back a small commission for sending a buyer (this comes at zero extra cost to the buyer)
Another way is advertising banners on your site. A popular method is Google's Adsense program. If your blog meets their criteria you can stick the code they give you on your site and be earning straight away from clicks on the adverts (PPC).
PROS
- If you have some knowledge about a topic or have a passion you want to share with the world then a blog is a great outlet to do that. Even better it can be monetized!
CONS
- Gaining traffic can be a long old slog. Writing a blog is no fun if nobody is reading or engaging with your content.
4. Promote other peoples products as an affiliate
Affiliating yourself with other people's products can be a great way of making money. They create the product and you take a slice of the profit for providing a sale. Awesome!
There are tons of affiliate schemes out there. You can sign up with sites like Clickbank or commission junction to find products that you want to promote. They list how much you will get for a sale and how well the products are converting.
Another big affiliate scheme is Amazon, commissions are pretty low but the wealth of physical products on Amazon means that you are never short of things to promote or talk about.
The work comes with promoting these products. You are going to need good ways of getting traffic.
Perhaps you own your own blog, adding reviews every so often with affiliate links should work well. Just don't appear spammy or recommend things that you don't actually endorse.
Building an email list is another great way to occasionally drop in products around other topics.
PROS
- If you have good ways of delivering targeted traffic to a product then you can make impressive money.
- If you are going to review something anyway then why not slip in a link that gives you commission?
CONS
- You can find yourself promoting bad products that sell well but are ultimately poor for the user
- Earnings can vary from one month to the next
5. Create and sell a digital product
Rather than promoting other peoples products, why not become a product creator yourself?
One of the most popular products that online sellers create are Ebooks. At the end of a long sales page, often with a time limit and discount you can buy an ebook that will teach you something new or perhaps 'change your life'.
But one of the best things about selling ebooks...is the price!
Seriously when was the last time you bought a book in the store for $97! Yet eBooks go for that kind of money all the time.
The eBook market is lucrative. It ultimately comes down to the fact that people are happy to part with a good amount of cash for someone else's knowledge or technique or solution to something. A great sales page that primes them and makes the product desirable also helps too!..
Another great thing - you can also get affiliates to help you sell your product. You lose a percentage of your profit but gaining the customers on the affiliates websites/email lists that might otherwise not have wanted your product is too valuable to ignore.
Don't want to create an eBook?
Selling eBooks is just one popular example. Perhaps you are a web designer or developer, how about rather than selling your time for money, create a web theme and sell that. Think about it, you create the item once and then sell it multiple times. Passive income at its finest.
PROS
- Passive income - Make something once and sell it again and again while you sleep
- Unlike traditional product selling, online eBooks or web themes have no distribution costs. There are very little costs involved!
CONS
- You might not feel you have the knowledge to write something that educates others or create something that people will buy.
6. Create a mobile app or software
Following on from our product example is another form of product: mobile apps and web/computer software.
Mobile is now a huge market that is too big to ignore. The App store on iOS and to a growing extent, the Google Play store are still growing exponentially. There are 1.3 Million apps on the Apple store (November 2014).
There is a huge market for apps but what I would say is that these markets are becoming more and more saturated. The easy money from simple apps has largely gone but there will always be surprises - see flappy birds.
But I don't know anything about programming!?
You have 2 options here. Learn how to program (cheaper but time consuming) or pay somebody else to create your idea. Perhaps if you have a good idea you could get somebody to do a joint venture with you.
It is all about ideas though, while a number of developers make some bucks cloning and slightly tweaking existing apps. A unique and original app that captures peoples attention, and hopefully goes viral is going to bring home the big money.
Premium apps charge the user to download, many developers will make apps free to entice a user but monetize with in-app advertising. Another growing model is 'freemium' this is where an app is free but users must pay to unlock further content within the app.
PROS
- A booming market means that there are many eyeballs waiting to purchase or click ads on your app.
CONS
- Apple in particular have a strict process for letting apps on their store.
- Apps can take a long time to develop with no guarantee of success and the days of simple 'beer chugging apps' are long gone.
7. Sell digital photos and stock imagery
A more creative way of selling products is by selling digital photography to micro stock websites like istockphoto or shutterstock.
Being handy behind a camera is important here but something more important is coming up with the right kind of photography. Like mobile apps the 'easy' or should i say 'obvious' photography requirements are mostly catered for.
What is required is creative thinking. A unique take on something or something that has not been done before.
Having said that though there will always be a requirement for generic business people shaking hands!!
Graphic designers can also create vector or photoshop images in the same way photographers do and sell them on micro stock sites. However from experience i would say this can be more time consuming and often pays less than photography.
PROS
- Passive income. Stock imagery i uploaded several years ago still makes me money each and every month.
- If you love taking photography then its an easy way to monetize your hobby
CONS
- Very saturated market means the easy money has long gone, you need to think outside the box.
- You will be asked to submit work to gain entry to the microstock site, make sure it is up to scratch!
Time to get started
And there you have it.
7 great ideas to get you thinking about how to start making money online.
If you can inject some creativity into any one of these methods and truly provide products or services with added value then you will be on the path to success.
Good luck!
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