I’m going to tell how to make money online. I’m not going to tell you how to have an entrepreneurial journey, or grow as a person and spiritual being – I’m going to tell you how to free yourself from the shackles of trading your time for money.
When you have an internet money making system in place you make money whether you work or not. You go to sleep and wake up to see how much money you made the day before.
How much money can you make online?
You can make a lot or a little. It depends on how hard you work, how much you learn about your industry, how much you are willing to try and experiment, and maybe just a little luck. Some people make a few bucks a month, others make 40k per month or more.
If you can make $10 you can make $100. If you can make $100 you can make $1,000. If you can make $1,000 you can make anything you put your mind to.
The open secret to making money online
There are lots of little secrets and tips and tricks and hacks to making money online, but the only way to make money on the internet is by selling something. You’ve got to sell, sell and sell some more.
You can have the greatest product in the world but if you don’t sell it then you don’t make money. You can have the worst product in the world and sell, sell, sell and make a whole bunch of money.
Here’s how you do it:
1) Create your own product and sell it – You can create an e-book, a piece of software, or sell another product that you have created, commissioned or purchased. You can create this product yourself or you can outsource the work to a freelancer.
2) Sell someone else’s product – Selling a product that someone else created for a % of the profit is called affiliate marketing.
3) Sell advertisement(s) on your website – You can sell advertising on your website directly to a company(s) or you can use Google AdSense to sell advertising.
4) Sell a service (consulting) – Most bloggers who make money off their website also sell their consulting services. They consult about SEO techniques and tactics, or they can act as life coaches.
Becoming an Online Entrepreneur
The REAL secret to making money online
The real secret to making money online, the real moneymaker, is selling “How to make money on the internet” programs. That is where the real money is. This is the secret of countless bloggers, location independent entrepreneurs, Tim Ferris wannabe’s, Affiliate Marketers and clickbankers who will have you believe otherwise.
Countless bloggers have followed this approach. They faked it ’til they made it by selling “How to make money online” programs. If you can make people believe you will show them the way to make money online they will give their money to you to get your information.
Money vs. Art
You can create art or you can make money, and never the tween shall meet. If you want to make money online you can forget about creating art and focus on salesmanship. Sales is the name of the game.
ABC – Always. Be. Closing.
I really, truly hate writing technical “How to” articles so I will keep this as brief as possible. I’m going to give you the facts and the resources and from then on it’s up to you to make something happen.
There are two types of people this guide is for
1) People who want to leave their 9-5 jive forever and need a way to do it.
2) People who want to supplement their 9-5 and make some extra cash money.
Why should you make money online?
So you can be FREE. Freedom and time are the most important things in the world. Being shackled to an office chair is a soul-stealing, heart-crushing affair that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy (ok, maybe I would) but I wouldn’t wish it on my friends. Be smart and leave the 9-5 jive forever.
There are two kinds of money to be made online
Passive money and Active money.
Passive money is when you make money selling a product. Passive money comes to you without you doing any additional work. You set up the product, automate your page, and sell your product which is charged and delivered automatically.
Active money is when you make money selling your service(s). Active money requires you do additional work (i.e. consulting).
Ways to make passive money online
Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is when a person advertises a product for another person in return for a % of the profit. Anytime you read a blog that talks about a product they love so very much and they conveniently provide a link for you to check out the product you are looking at affiliate marketing in action. To become an affiliate marketer you will post a review of a product on your website, get your customers to purchase the product and you will get a piece of the profits. This can add up to some very good income. You can make up to 75% of the purchase price of the product doing this. Let other people create the product and you send traffic to buy that product and collect your money.
The most ethical way to become an Affiliate Marketer is to actually use and enjoy the products that you promote.
Advertising with Google AdSense – Google AdSense is the most popular, and easiest method, to put paid advertising on your website. Will it make you a bunch of money? Maybe yes or maybe no. It takes experimentation to find what works best.
Selling Private Advertising – When you have a decent amount of traffic to your website or blog you will get requests to place advertising on your website. You can also create an “Advertise?” link on your website to allow advertisers to contact you about placing their advertising on your website.
Selling a product – The biggest moneymaker is creating your own high quality product and selling it to your audience. You can even create an affiliate deal for your product – allow others to generate traffic for you and give them a percentage of the sale. This can all be automated by using companies like Clickbank.com.
Ways to make active money online
Sell your service –
- Are you an expert in a certain area?
- Are you good at SEO work?
- Are you good at programming?
- Can you be a life coach?
- Are you a good graphic designer?
- Are you good at using PhotoShop?
- Can you teach someone a 2nd language?
- Can you be a personal fitness trainer?
- Can you write quality articles for other people?
- Can you fake any of that?
People will pay you for your service if you have a quality website that makes them feel like you are a qualified expert.
I have news for you, most bloggers who blog about “How to make money online” don’t know anything and are trying to make money themselves. Most bloggers start a blog to make money and become famous. They fake the hell out of their knowledge.
The 6 steps to making money online by blogging
1) Start a quality website or blog
2) Provide something valuable
3) Get traffic
4) Capture the emails of your audience
5) Sell your audience something worthwhile
6) Repeat
Bonus #7) Be free
The biggest money spending audience on the internet
Do you want to know who the biggest money spending audience on the internet is?
It is you and people just like you.
People who are looking for a way to leave their soul-stealing job and live life on their own terms. People who are tired of feeling like Prison Panda.
That’s why “How to make money online” programs and websites are popular and profitable.
One of the easiest ways to make money on the internet right now, this very second, is to create and / or sell a “How to Make Money Online” website or ebook because that’s what people just like you want to know. The secret is that you make money online by selling other people how to make money online.
What kind of website should I start?
First rule: Do not think in terms of a website, think in terms of websites. To make money online you must have many sites producing income for you.
Blogs: Blogs are the easiest websites to start and monetize. On a blog you can use Adsense ads, you can sell private ads, you can post affiliate links, you can create and sell your own e-book or other product, you can review products for a fee, and you can sell your consulting services. There are many, many ways to make money from a blog.
Blogs are the easiest way to start in the online world.
Running a blog with WordPress is very, very easy.
Niche Sites: A niche site is a small site dedicated to a small market. For example: a website about how to kill ants. Pepper in some articles, pepper in some advertisements, pay attention to the SEO and the competition and watch a steady trickle of money come into your pocket. Niche sites are the bread and butter of internet marketers making a living from their websites. 10, 20, or 30 niche sites bringing in $100-$200 a month can bring you some real money. Niche sites can certainly make more than that per month – but they do take work.
You can build niche sites the same way you build your blog, using WordPress.
Single Landing Page for a product you have created: A landing page is a simple one or two page site that shows you a product, its benefit and then it’s price.A very simple but highly effective sales page for a quality product. FYI – That’s an affiliate link. If you click on that link and purchase Eat Stop Eat then I make a commission off of that. Can you now see some of the ways you can make money?
E-Commerce Sites: A lot harder to start for a complete newbie but can certainly be very profitable.
What do you need to start?
Domain Registration – A domain is the name of the website. For example: The domain name of this website is motasem-notes.net . A domain can be .com, .net, .org, .us, .info etc. Domain registration is the act of purchasing a domain name. Domain names are quite cheap if they are not already taken by another person or company. A .com domain name will run in the neighborhood of $10 for a year.
When you purchase a domain name it is a good idea to also purchase a private registration. If you don’t purchase a private registration anyone on the internet can see who owns your site and they can possibly get more information about you. It’s a good idea to protect yourself as much as you possibly can.
There are free websites available but they do not look professional and I highly advise against them. Free websites and blogs can be built at blogger.com or wordpress.com but they will always have blogger, blogspot, or WordPress in the title. For example, if I had started motasem-notes.net on a free platform the domain name would be motasem-notes.wordpress.com and I would never, ever be able to change that until I purchased a real domain name. If your goal is to make a professional money making website you must purchase your own domain name(s).
Hosting – Hosting is where your webpage, files, and documents are stored. Your website must be hosted somewhere or it cannot be viewed by anyone. It sounds complicated to a very beginner but it isn’t. Once you set up your hosting provider you can forget all about it.
SEO – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When someone searches in google for a particular word or phrase and you want them to come to your site you must optimize and manipulate your wording so that you have a higher place in the google lineup.
WordPress – WordPress is the easiest, best and, frankly, only way to run a website. Best of all it is completely free. Every money making blog and small website uses WordPress as their platform. WordPress takes less than 5 minutes to install and is extremely easy to learn and use.
There are two types of WordPress. WordPress.org and wordpress.com. WordPress.com is a site that will let you create a free blog and provide free hosting but your domain name will always end with wordpress.com. I do not recommend you use wordpress.com. WordPress.org is what the big boys use.
WordPress Themes – A WordPress theme is the look of the website. With WordPress themes you can change the look of your website in a matter of minutes. You can design your own theme, you can use a free theme, or you can purchase a professional looking Premium WordPress theme. Since your goal is making money and not making art then a Premium Theme is the only way to go. Your site has to look good if you’re going to make some money.
WordPress Plugins – WordPress plugins are additional tools to add to your WordPress website to optimize performace. WordPress plugins are extremely easy to download, activate and use. Some examples of WordPress plugins: When you see a “Facebook Like” button or a “ReTweet” button on a website or blog you are seeing WordPress plugins in use. There are many, many behind the scenes plugins that the casual viewer will not even notice or be aware of but they help make your website run smoothly.
E-mail list / Subscriber list / Opt-in list – This is your list of website viewers who have given you their e-mail address to be kept posted of A) any new posts to your website and B) receive any e-mail communications from you. For example: You can send out a weekly or monthly newsletter, send out any special or urgent news, or send out special offers for your products or your affiliate products.
Setting up an email list is a MUST DO from the very beginning of your website.
Monetize – To monetize your website is to turn it from a non-income producing website to an income producing website. To bring in money.
Resources:
Remember, this guide is a primer to making money online. This is how you start. You must continually read and learn to make money, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Start here:
Installing WordPress, WordPress Themes, and WordPress Plugins
Installing WordPress
- WordPress – You do not need to download WordPress. Hostgator and Bluehost both make installing WordPress extremely simple and painless. To learn how to install WordPress on a Hostgator hosted site go here. To learn how to install WordPress on a Bluehost hosted site go here.
Installing WordPress Themes
- To learn how to easily and painlessly install a WordPress theme go here.
Installing WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Plugins – WP Plugins are the easiest thing in the world to install.
Market Research
- Google Analytics – Google’s free website tracking and analytical tool. View all sorts of info about your visitors (i.e. how long they stay on your site, your most popular articles and pages, how visitors came to your site).
Outsourcing Work
- Upwork – Elance is where you go to get a freelancer to do some work for you (i.e. Site design, site coding, ghostwriting).
Money Makers
- Google AdSense – Google AdSense are ads you put on your site. Anytime someone clicks on the ads you make some money. It’s only small change but it adds up as your traffic grows. It can turn into some real income for you if you build a good website.
- Clickbank – Clickbank is where you go to find an affiliate product(s) to advertise on your website. Signing up for a clickbank account and promoting clickbank products is very easy.
- Amazon Affiliates – If you send someone to amazon to purchase a product you can make a percentage of whatever was sold. Signing up for Amazon Affiliates is extremely easy.
- Paypal – Paypal is one way for you to accept payment for your website, goods and services. It’s very easy to set up. FYI – You can donate some of your hard earned money to me for producing this helpful and free guide for you. Paypal accepts all major credit cards, to make a donation you do not even need a Paypal account. But you will likely need to open a Paypal account to receive payments.
- E-junkie – E-Junkie is how you sell a product you created. You simply create your product and they will take care of the rest. You can add their shopping cart to your website and boom, everything is automated for you after that. You can also choose affiliate products from E-Junkie to promote.
Email Subscriber & Newsletter List Creation
- Aweber – Aweber is the best of the best for capturing emails and sending out mass emails and newsletters. I used it for about two years. I only stopped when I no longer needed to send out mass e-mails.