Making money online

The following methods of making money online are not listed in order of preference or earning power. They are simply a brief introduction to the most popular and efficient ways to generate a part-time, or even a full-time income using your PC working at home, or anywhere else you may have access to the internet. For some a website is essential, for others you don’t need one.


1 - Affiliate programs

If you have a website, and you want to make money from it you should consider joining an affiliate program. If you don’t have a website but are willing to learn how to build one be sure to read the simple guide to ‘Designing and Building a Website’

Becoming an affiliate means you can make money by advertising and promoting the products of other merchants from your website.
This is generally done by placing banners and text links on your site. When a visitor clicks on a merchant’s banner or text link they arrive at the merchant’s website whereupon the visitor may make a purchase from which you will earn a commission. The results of promoting someone else’s products however, can vary enormously. Simply putting up a banner or a text link on your website is unlikely to generate much commission, unless you receive many thousands of daily visitors. But if you’re willing to learn a few simple marketing techniques, such as pre-selling through recommendations, even with a small website you could soon start building up a useful income.

You can apply what you learn from affiliate marketing to sell almost anything you can think of. But ideally your first priority should be to sign up with merchants that sell products your website visitors are interested in. For example, if you wanted to advertise pet food on a ‘Tips for breeding dogs’ website then you’re much more likely to generate a sale and earn a commission than you would if you placed the advert on a site for ‘How to build a PC’ because most of your visitors simply wouldn’t be interested in pet food. So always look for products and services that are compatible with the content of your site.

You may be surprised at the range of products and services available from merchants who require website publishers to promote their stuff. To get some idea I suggest you take a peek at one of the best affiliate network directories on the net Commission junction. It’s free to join and there is no charge to link up with any of the merchants listed. Everything is simple and straightforward. You get quick access to the html code for all the banners and text links you need as well as daily statistics of how many sales you make and which advertisements are working well and which ones aren’t. All you need to get started is some basic knowledge of how to cut and paste the linking code into your web pages. This is the code that has your affiliate identification embedded into it to accurately track all sales.

Promoting other peoples’ products through an affiliate program is a useful way to generate income using your website. You don’t need to hold any stock or have the responsibility to fulfill the order or take payment. You simply get paid for introducing the buyer to the seller and when a sale is made your obligation ends there.

There are a number of ebooks and articles available online that can help you learn more about affiliate marketing. My advice is to seek out the people who are already making substantial incomes from promoting affiliate programs and learn from them. People like Rosalind Gardner for example, whose monthly turnover is in excess of $20.000 per month, simply from promoting affiliate programs using simple methods that anyone can learn and put into practice. Rosalind has written an ebook entitled The Super Affiliate Handbook which reveals her successful techniques to creating a super affiliate income.

Another proponent of affiliate marketing is James Martell who makes tens of thousands of dollars a month promoting other peoples products and services. He also has a very good course in affiliate marketing which is packed with information and knowledge that have taken him years to aquire. You can read more about his affiliate marketing course by clicking here.

The Internet Marketing Center also has some excellent advice for everyone new to affiliate marketing. You can sign up for their excellent affiliate program and gain access to their affiliate training and resource center for free. As experts in the field of internet marketing their products are second to none. The brilliant internet marketing course which can be found at the Internet Marketing Center is packed with everything you need to know about internet marketing and is widely regarded as the best available.

2 - Google Ads

An alternative to joining and promoting a merchant’s affiliate program is to incorporate Google AdSense advertising on your website.


Consider this... Google is one of the most successful companies online, in a similar league to Yahoo! and MSN. Next time you use Google and type in a search term take a look at the column down the right side of the page when the search results show up.

What you'll see is a selection of small text ads which are related to your search query. These are what is known as PPC (pay per click) advertisements. In other words, whoever has placed the advertisement with Google has done so on the basis that every time their advert is clicked on, the advertiser pays a small sum to Google. So the advertiser gets good quality targeted traffic to their site, Google makes some extra cash, and everybody is happy. But it doesn’t stop there, because Google, in their almighty wisdom, allows you to put these ads on your website too, and they’re willing to pay you a percentage of their commission. It’s a win win situation. What makes this so brilliant is that the ads that you display on your website will be mostly related to the content you provide, and statistics show that visitors are much more likely to click on these ads than banners. All you need do to get started is apply to Google first, and once accepted they will provide the code which generates the ads to appear on your site.

Notice I said that your site needs to be accepted first. That’s because Google has a few rules that need to be adhered to in order for your site to be accepted. This is neccessary to keep their advertisers happy and raise the standards of good search results.

To read their guidelines to what is acceptable and what isn’t click here

There are many individuals and companies who are also making very good money from actually paying for these ads to be shown. Affiliates for example. We’ve learnt how affiliate programs work and how displaying Google ads on your site can also make you extra money, but what if you don’t have a website? Is it possible to still be an affiliate and make money from an affiliate program?

Absolutely! By utilising the PPC (pay per click) opportunity that Google and similar PPC search engines provide, even someone without a website can join an affiliate program and promote a merchant’s products or service using their own affiliate links. Providing you follow Google’s editorial guidelines and any terms and conditions as stated by the merchant that relate to the use of PPC advertising to promote their products, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Unlike the time and effort involved in planning, designing, building and hosting a website, setting up an account with Google and making money from Google AdWords is quick and simple. Providing, of course, you research your market correctly and apply some easy to learn marketing knowledge first to ensure good results,

Chris Carpenter has made an excellent income using these techniques and has written a book entitled Google Cash which is recommended reading for any affiliates wishing to embark on this money making system.

3 - Info products

Digital products are ideal for selling on the net because they cost next to nothing to produce and are easily duplicated with no overheads such as printing and packaging costs. Some of the highest paying affiliate commissions are available from promoting ebooks, marketing courses and software products. This is because of the high mark-up profits which are possible, allowing resellers and promoters to make between 25% - 50% commission on each sale.

A whole range of downloadable products can be found at ClickBank including some of the best information products available online.
If you want to seek out and promote products with exceptional profit margins, Clickbank is the place to visit.

Of course the big money is made by the originators of these products. Imagine creating an ebook and having hundreds, possibly even thousands of affiliates signing up to sell your book? It’s not so difficult as it sounds. If you sign up with ClickBank to sell your digital product through their marketing program, you also have the advantage of having thousands of potential affiliates ready to promote your product on their websites using simple tracking links that Clickbank provides. As long as your product is of a high standard and has little competition, you are likely to get plenty of interest. Affiliates are usually generously rewarded with high commissions ranging betwen 25% to 50% but because you’re selling a digital product your overheads are practically zero.

The article ’ebook writing’ by Miguel Alvarez will give you a brief introduction to writing your own ebook. For a more comprehensive writing guide I recommend you read Ken Evoy’s ’Make Your Knowledge Sell‘ Ken provides first class information on how to produce and sell your own information products as well as how to become proficient in pre-selling products you choose to promote.



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Ebooks are not the only option though. Have you ever considered designing your own software?

Too complicated! I hear you say? Don’t know anything about programming?

Well actually you don’t need too. It’s now possible to create simple programs that you can sell, or use as a promotional giveaway.
MYOS (Make Your Own Software) is a piece of software that allows you to use your creativity to develop simple, but exclusive digital products of your own. It’s the perfect tool to boost your sales or mailing list. Click here to find out more about it’s features and benefits.

Talking of mailing lists..... that brings us to our next money making method....

4 - Newsletters and e-zines

Newsletters and electronic magazines (e-zines) are a great way to build up a customer base and a trusting relationship with people prepared to deal with you on a regular basis. This is the cornerstone of most successful businesses whether established online or offline.

Having a list of subscribers that you can regularly mail to puts you in the perfect position to bring related products or services to your customers attention. Whether you provide your own saleable products, electronic information or otherwise, or join partners as an affiliate and promote other merchants goods, the process of churning out a regular newsletter can seem suddenly more inviting.

Starting a newsletter or e-zine is also a good way to learn and improve your marketing skills. Public relations, effective advertising, producing useful information that people are actively seeking out, and building a subscriber list through opt-in subscription methods, are all essential skills required for making money online. Some successful e-zines are even produced and distributed without the need for a website. Building up a strong subscriber list can be achieved simply by advertising in the right places. An effective advert and a simple link to your mailing list subscription manager may be all that you need. Check out the ‘ListApp’ service at Server.com for more details about how to start your and run your own mailing list.

If you need inspiration to think up ideas or learn how other e-zines are proving to be popular, take a look at the two e-zine directories Ezine-universe and Ezine Search where the choice of subject matter is huge. If you see an opening for an untapped market then you could be on to a winner. Start building your subscriber list now! If you can reach thousands of people interested in a topic of information or a service that you can provide, then you could turn this to your advantage and make sales. Not only that, once your subscriber list has reached 5,000 or more you could easily make more money by including paid for advertising.

Getting people to subscribe to your newsletter or e-zine isn’t that difficult. All you need to do to get people to sign up is to entice them with a free offer for something you know they can’t resist. For example, a free e-book, or free software. Providing they perceive the offer as being valuable and able to save them money, you can’t fail to get a steady stream of new subscribers.

Fact: It’s a lot easier to make follow-up sales to existing customers who you have a good relationship with, than trying to sell to someone who has never dealt with you before. So build up trust by providing new subscribers with a first class service and you are far more likely to succeed in your new venture.

5 - E-commerce website

Many people assume that the best way to make money online is to set up a shop selling products direct from a website. While this is true for the majority of well established online businesses, it can be a costly and daunting proposition for newcomers who want to set up a business online for the very first time. If you have products you want to sell on the net but want to test the waters first before making a major commitment you should consider Pay Pal as your online payment payment processing system. It’s free to join, very simple to set up and you can use it to configure your own shopping cart to fit in with the design of your site. Whether you have a range of products or single items to sell, Pay Pal is a quick and easy way to start selling products online.

An alternative to using Pay Pal is to use an all-in-one solution such as Atomic Shops which allows any type of business to set up a fully functioning website in minutes, whether you simply want to promote your business or sell goods online.

If you already have your site built and are seeking a good web hosting service, consider using MidPhase Hosting who offer fast, reliable web hosting and for a small monthly fee can provide everything you need to set up your own e-commerce website. Alternatively, the host4profit web hosting service is well worth considering because host4profit also gives you access to a wealth of marketing information from some of the leading marketers on the internet.

If you don’t have products to sell but still like the idea of having your own e-commerce website you can sign up with SFI and promote your own online store complete with a whole range of items to sell in various categories. SFI is an easy solution to starting your own online business. But like all the other methods described here, it requires good marketing skills to get visitors flocking to your store. Without targeted visitors you won’t make a penny! SFI is free to join and is ideal for anyone wishing to start up an online business with a zero budget.

6 - Selling stuff on eBay

Selling stuff on eBay is easy. Most of us have heard reports about how some individuals and businesses are making massive incomes from selling on eBay. But like any other business there’s no magic formula to instant success. You need to learn the ropes first. Start small and work your way up.

Sole traders and big companies are using eBay as a way increase their sales. But it’s not a guaranteed way to make money online. There are charges to consider before calculating the profits you might expect from selling through their auction pages. If you’re new to the concept of selling on eBay I suggest you read their guidelines thoroughly. Make a note of their listing and selling fees and consider all other costs you might encounter regarding postage, packing and the use of payment processing services such as Pay Pal.

If you’re not registered with eBay you will need to register first before you can start to buy or sell. Click here to go and register now.

Try testing response rates by putting a small, select number of items up for auction first. Choose products that allow you to realise a good profit margin. After eBay’s listing and selling fees, plus delivery and payment processing charges are taken into consideration, there should still be room for making a profit. At the same time, choose products that you can afford to make a small loss on if necessary. After all, if they don’t sell you will still need to pay the listing fee. You could even lose money on the sale if you don’t follow some simple rules to minimise losses.

Whole books have been written about how to trade successfully on eBay. One of the most popular ebooks available online is written by
Jim Cockrum, the author of ‘The silent sales machine hiding on ebay’ His experience and techniques have helped many people to make money using the most popular auction site online. Another good source of advice is Ken Evoy’s Make Your Net Auction Sell. With the information provided by these two bestselling authors, and by getting some basic experience of trading on eBay, you will soon learn to see the possibilities of making money from online auctions.

Once you become proficient at selling on eBay you might consider approaching companies and manufacturers who are willing to provide you with supplies of their products for you to sell on their behalf. Providing you can negotiate a suitable selling fee with room for a good profit margin, then finding a niche product that proves to be popular can lead you to a goldmine.

Some ebayers are turning over tens of thousands of dollars in revenue every month! Some have even closed down their offline trading premises to trade solely on eBay. Such is the success of the eBay phenomenon.

The most successful merchants on eBay are known as ‘power sellers’ Next time you visit eBay look out for the power sellers and take notice of how they run their business. Take particular note of how they promote their products using powerful descriptive headlines and text, as well as high quality images that showcase their products to the best advantage. Their excellent after sales service and customer relations help them achieve a top feedback rating which builds trust among new and old customers alike, who are happy to deal with them again and again. Emulate their success by following the same techniques and principles they employ to make big sales!

For a more detailed article about selling stuff on eBay click here.

7. Subscription websites

Finally we come to what I believe is an under-developed opportunity to make money online ... subscription websites!

Subscription websites, often referred to as membership sites, are becoming increasingly popular with people willing to pay a regular subscription to access information that is difficult to find elsewhere. Other types of site that often use the subscription model are sites that provide a specialised service, or make available a library of useful content. Internet dating sites and image libraries are two prime examples.

Anyone who can provide a unique service or specialised information in a niche market could set up a subscription website. By signing up new members on an annual or monthly payment plan, you could soon build up a sizeable income. For example, let’s say you’re a bit of an expert on how to make money from property development. You could set up a site that gives free information on this subject, but only allows paying members access to your private membership site. This would be a secure area which can only be entered using a username and a password. It would contain those ‘closely guarded secrets’ that only your expert knowledge and experience can reveal. Only subscribers would then have access to the most effective methods and shortcuts on how to succeed in the lucrative property development business.

This is just for illustrative purposes of course. But anyone who has a passion and expert knowledge of a hobby or business could set up their own subscription website, providing they know how to go about it. Fortunately there are some very good resources and examples of how to start and run a subscription site.

One of the best sources of information is Membership Site Advisor which offers membership site management tools. Subscribing to their service will give you access to the information and tools you need to set your site up.

Also take a look at Bill Myers Online. Bill has produced an all-in-one solution that enables a company or any individual to set up their own membership site online. It’s called ‘Membergate’ and is an excellent product.

Bill made a fortune from his skill as a product developer. His website is a superb resource for anyone interested in product development. Whether it’s a simple ebook or professional DVD production, there’s a ton of information here that can help you succeed with producing and marketing your own products.

The most important ingredient of course is to have a target market. If there isn’t enough people out there who will be interested in what you have to offer, then you’re unlikely to succeed in your venture. It’s important to do some research first to find out if there will be a demand. One way to do this is to use Overture’s search term tool. Overture provides information on how many searches were done on a specific keyword or phrase. For example, at the time of writing I did a search for ‘dog breeding’ and there were 16,943 related searches carried out during the previous month. However, ‘dog breeding’ is a fairly generic term, so if you specialised in breeding boxer dogs then the results would be much lower but highly targeted towards a niche market.

So let’s assume there’s enough demand and little competition in your chosen category, after setting up your site, the next step would be to attract subscribers. To do this you would need to generate a lot of good quality traffic to your site. By good quality I mean carefully targeted traffic which consists mainly of visitors who are definitely interested in what you have to offer. Not everyone will sign up of course, but the more focused your advertising campaign is, the more likely you are to receive good quality traffic.

Using some of the methods oulined above will produce good results. PPC (pay per click) advertising on Google and Overture for example.
Viral marketing using free giveaway ebooks that offer useful information and a good introduction the benefits of subscribing to your site.
E-zines and newsletters that promote your service. Either produce your own or choose existing publications that are suitable to advertise in. Affiliate programs. Find affiliates who are eager to promote your membership subscriptions on a commission basis. And of course, let’s not forget to mention search engine optimisation which is essential if you want your site to rank highly in the search engines.
(See resources list below for more information)

Once set up and running, in order to maintain and increase subscriptions, it’s important to continue to provide a first class service. If you don’t give your members a good reason to return to your site regularly then your venture will fail. Always provide a high quality service and good content. Information and services that people can use to their benefit will ensure that they continue their membership, and hopefully recommend you to their friends.

In conclusion

I have given you some insight into the methods which I consider to be the seven best ways to make money online. There are other ways of course, but these are the ones that I would recommend to anyone looking for new ways to boost their income with their online business, or for newbies just starting out.

Ok, I hear you say. It’s all very well having your own website and knowing which methods work best to make money online, but how do I get people to visit my site?

That’s a good point! If you can’t reach a big enough audience, or target the people who are actively seeking the products or service you’re trying to promote, then you’re hardly going to succeed. But the fact is there’s an endless source of free information online which explains how to get visitors to your website. From how to achieve a high search engine ranking to the simple technique of getting link exchanges, there are many ways to choose from.

One way to get more visitors to your site if you’re starting out on a shoestring budget is to join some of the better startpage programs which send free hits to your website when you open your browser a set number of times (usually 1 hit for every 2 times you open your browser). By joining a select few of these programs and recommending others to do the same, you can soon begin generating extra hits to your site. One of the programs I can recommend is Trafficswarm.

If you’re serious about making money online then the methods outlined above are the ones that are most likely to succeed. And there’s nothing to stop you implementing all seven of these methods to create multiple streams of income. Forget about ‘paid to read emails’ and the like, either set up your own website or e-zine and promote it vigorously, applying the methods described above. Or put the same effort into promoting SFI or selling a niche market product on eBay



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