In my last post About Making Money Online I put forward the idea that one of the better ways to make money online from a work at home business was to have your own website. In this post I'd like to expand on some of the reasons why I believe this is the case. I'll also discuss some of the different types of money making web sites presently in use. I should stress up front that this is not a get rich quick scheme but rather a long term way earn extra income which should grow over time.
Setting up your own website can be quite cheap. In fact if you're willing to do the setup yourself, you can get away with just buying a domain name and some cheap web hosting and you're on your way. There are also free services available. If you're just starting out this can be a great way to get your feet wet. You'll learn alot and all it will cost you is some of your time. Then once you've found a concept which works, you can invest the money to set up a more permanent internet business.
As I mentioned in my last post, owning your own website is an incredibly scalable way to earn extra cash. Once you've set up your website, you can scale up from 100 visitors per day to 1,000 then 10,000 and your revenue will grow at the same rate. While you'll need to put in the work to grow your traffic levels, servicing a site with 10,000 daily visitors is not much more work than maintaining a site with 100. You can make money 24 hours per day, 7 days per week - you don't need to be there. In fact, depending on how you set it up, it can almost run on autopilot giving you an ongoing residual income. And the internet is global. How else could you reach hundreds of millions, if not billions of people worldwide. That's an impressive potential customer base from which to start making money online.
But what sort of website can you use to make money? The only limit is your imagination. One of the more common approaches, particularly for beginners, is to create a content based website. Content based websites may be set up in a number of ways. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Blogs:
A weblog or blog is a website which is kind of like an online journal or diary. But it can be used to publish information about any topic you like - it doesn't need to be personal. Blogs are normally updated frequently with new articles called posts. In my experience, search engines seem to like blogs, probably because there's always new content being made available. Blogs are cheap and easy to set up. Google offer the Blogger service for free and while it's looked down upon from some, it suits me fine. Wordpress is a popular free weblog software package but you'll typically have to provide your own web hosting to run it.
Forums:
An internet forum is a website which facilitates community based discussion about particular topics. Typically the content of a forum can be viewed by anyone, but in order to contribute to discussions you need to sign up and become a member. There are a wide variety of forum software packages available.
Wiki:
A Wiki is another form of collaborative content based website. It's a collection of web pages normally available to everyone to read and modify. Although many wikis are not-for-profit, I have seen this model used to make money as well.
While each of the above mentioned sites normally provide free content, a natural extension to this is a paid membership version of any of the above. The content would obviously have to be compelling enough and of a sufficient quality to get people to join up, but there are plenty of examples of subscription based business models out there.
eCommerce:
eCommerce websites raise the complexity level a little, but are another viable internet business model. You may already have a bricks and mortar business which you'd like to take online or you may have developed a new product which you'd like to market directly. Using an eCommerce website, you can sell your own goods or services directly on the internet. It's a great way to start making money from home.
Social Websites:
I said before that your imagination is your only limit. In more recent times Web 2.0 sites like Facebook and Myspace have become very popular especially among Gen Y. These websites are more complex to develop and will obviously require greater outlay. But if you have an idea you think might take off, give it a go.
The common thread with all of these types of websites is that you need traffic to make them successful. Almost all monetization methods rely on a steady stream of visitors. Website promotion or traffic generation is a whole series of articles in itself but two of the more common and reliable methods are paid traffic through placing ads on other sites and free search traffic generated by search engines.
There are plenty of advertising networks available if you want to pay to get your traffic. One of the most popular is the Adwords program offered by Google. This is a Pay Per Click (PPC) model. This means that you pay a fee each time a visitor is sent to your site via an ad placed on another site. Adwords has a large inventory of publishers and manages where the ads are displayed. However before you embark on an advertising campaign, be sure your internet business will make enough sales and make a sufficient margin on each sale to at least break even. If you don't know what you're doing, you can spend alot of money very quickly with very little to show for it.
If you're looking for free traffic, this second option is for you. By applying Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to place your website near the top of the search engine results for your chosen keywords, you'll receive a continuous stream of visitors to your website with no monetary outlay. While SEO is seen by many as being too hard, by following some basic rules should should have some success especially if you choose some less competitive keywords. A proper discussion of Search Engine Optimization is beyond the scope of this article, but I will write more about it in the future.
Once you have your own website and it's receiving visitors, there are numerous ways to make money. For internet entrepreneurs just starting out, placing ads on a content site is a very common business model. There a many ad networks available or you can sell advertising space to advertisers directly. Some of the networks operate on a Cost Per Click (CPC) basis. This means the site owner gets paid each time a visitor clicks on an ad. Another common model is CPM. This is where a publisher is essentially paid just for displaying an ad. Rates are normally quoted per 1,000 impressions (page loads). Cost Per Action (CPA) and lead generation are other avenues you could investigate.
Another method is to promote affiliate products on your site. Under this model you will promote someone else's product on your site either actively within the written content of your site or passively by placing banners or other types of ads on your site. You will then be paid each time a customer referred by your website makes a purchase. There a plenty of affiliate networks which act as intermediaries between the publisher (website owner) and the affiliate. They facilitate things like tracking referrals and handling payments to publishers. There are many affiliate programs out there with ClickBank Commission and Junction being two of the more popular ones.
While there are plenty of other online business opportunities out there, these are the simplest to get started with (and this post is already way longer than I originally intended). With little or no outlay you can establish a home based business and be on your way to an internet income in a matter of hours. As you scale up to more complex models you'll need more infrastructure in place (like payment processing or shopping cart capabilities) and this will obviously cost more. But the potential profits are greater as well.
So I'm advocating most beginners get started with what I will call the publisher model. Create a content website, generate some traffic to it (preferably free search traffic) and run ads and/or promote affiliate products. Once you've learned the ropes, you can move on to something more advanced. There are many examples of publishers wgo successfully earn money from website including Darren Rowse from problogger.net and Steve Pavlina from stevepavlina.com. While they're both ostensibly bloggers (ie. their websites are set up as blogs) the format of their websites is not important. The important thing is that they generate traffic by publishing content then sell advertising and promote affiliate products to generate a full-time income.
As it's one of my preferred I will be writing a lot more about making money with a website in future posts.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
About Making Money Online
The truth about making money online...
When I first started out in this caper I was hoping to earn some extra cash from home. I wasn't trying to get rich quick. I was just looking for a little extra pocket money on the side (so to speak). It's not that I really needed the extra dollars. It was more of a game really or maybe a challenge. Could I, from the comfort of my own home, manage to generate a little additional income on the web?
Like many beginners, I started doing things like participating in online paid surveys. There are heaps of these sites out there. Marketing companies are looking for your opinions on all sorts of things. What are your thoughts on breakfast cereal? Are you planning an overseas trip? What sort of non-alcoholic beverages do you drink? How often? On a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being most enjoyable and 5 being least enjoyable, how do you rate the flavor of our new deep-fried-custard-in-a-bucket range?
Okay. Maybe I went a little overboard there, but you get the idea. After the initial fun wore off - you can actually have fun filling out these paid online surveys if you're creative enough. Play with the demographics a little. Adjust your age and salary level a bit (or a lot). Make helpful suggestions about how some of the products could be improved. Have they considered chili flavored ice-cream? What about cornflake flavored energy drinks - much more appealing at breakfast time, is what I told them.
Anyway, I digress. They probably discarded my answers as being outside of the statistical norm anyway. As I was saying, after the fun wore off, it became just plain hard work. At just a few dollars per survey, it took a while to earn enough to get paid. I didn't mind too much at first because I was just spending time I would have wasted watching television anyway.
At this point I should probably describe my personal situation a little. I'm married with young children. I work full time in a reasonably well paid job. When I first started looking for online money making opportunities, I wasn't looking for an alternative to my day job - it was more of a hobby really. But as time went on I realized that if I wanted to put in the time and effort it might become a realistic alternative to full-time paid employment. I'm not there yet, but things are progressing.
So I eventually I worked out that getting paid to fill out surveys was not one of the better "easy money making ideas" going around. After dabbling in a bunch of paid-to-surf programs and the like, I discovered blogging. I liked the idea of writing stuff, posting it on a website then selling advertising to companies who wanted to reach my readers or selling affiliate products to my readers.
It was at this point that I made a big mistake. I started a blog was about blogging. While I enjoed myself and met a whole bunch of great people, the cash didn't exactly roll in. The only people reading my blog were other bloggers. And they were all pushing the same products or showing ads for the same advertisers as me. It was a fatally flawed plan right from the start.
But then something interesting happened. As I lost interest and posted less and less frequently, the traffic died down. The regular visitors lost interest and the only hits I got were from search engines - anonymous searchers showing up each looking for something very specific. But here was the revelation. The amount I was earning stayed the same. It was still a pitance, but it proved that the search engine visitors were the ones clicking on ads or buying things. Because of the topics I wrote about, these guys weren't arriving in huge numbers but it was enough to convince me to change my strategy and start again.
The upshot of all of this is that my preferred method of making money on the internet now is to create blogs or other websites about products and services which people are searching for and are willing to pay good money for. Then by optimizing the websites so they appear high up in the search engine results for my chosen keywords, I receive free traffic, a percentage of which click on an ad or buy something, in which case I get paid. My main methods are pay per click programs and pay per lead affiliate programs.
What's the point of all these ramblings? I guess I just wanted to share my experiences and leave you which some key ideas to consider.
When setting up an internet business, or any home based busines for that matter, the key is to make it scaleable. Getting paid to take surveys is fine but the income is linear. If you put in more time, you'll earn more money, but if you stop, so will your income. The same goes for most other legitimate online jobs. However, by setting up a website, it will keep generating income even if you're not there. A steady stream of visitors will show up whether you're there or not - day and night, weekends too.
Another key concept I want to convey is the importance of persistence. Keep at it. Experiment and try out new ideas and approaches - there's more than one way to skin a cat. And there is no single right way. We each possess a unique set of skills so what works for one person may not work for another. The key is to keep your goal in sight as you keep toiling away.
I want to leave you with something I read at the Warrior Forum recently (one of the better internet marketing resources by the way):
When I first started out in this caper I was hoping to earn some extra cash from home. I wasn't trying to get rich quick. I was just looking for a little extra pocket money on the side (so to speak). It's not that I really needed the extra dollars. It was more of a game really or maybe a challenge. Could I, from the comfort of my own home, manage to generate a little additional income on the web?
Like many beginners, I started doing things like participating in online paid surveys. There are heaps of these sites out there. Marketing companies are looking for your opinions on all sorts of things. What are your thoughts on breakfast cereal? Are you planning an overseas trip? What sort of non-alcoholic beverages do you drink? How often? On a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being most enjoyable and 5 being least enjoyable, how do you rate the flavor of our new deep-fried-custard-in-a-bucket range?
Okay. Maybe I went a little overboard there, but you get the idea. After the initial fun wore off - you can actually have fun filling out these paid online surveys if you're creative enough. Play with the demographics a little. Adjust your age and salary level a bit (or a lot). Make helpful suggestions about how some of the products could be improved. Have they considered chili flavored ice-cream? What about cornflake flavored energy drinks - much more appealing at breakfast time, is what I told them.
Anyway, I digress. They probably discarded my answers as being outside of the statistical norm anyway. As I was saying, after the fun wore off, it became just plain hard work. At just a few dollars per survey, it took a while to earn enough to get paid. I didn't mind too much at first because I was just spending time I would have wasted watching television anyway.
At this point I should probably describe my personal situation a little. I'm married with young children. I work full time in a reasonably well paid job. When I first started looking for online money making opportunities, I wasn't looking for an alternative to my day job - it was more of a hobby really. But as time went on I realized that if I wanted to put in the time and effort it might become a realistic alternative to full-time paid employment. I'm not there yet, but things are progressing.
So I eventually I worked out that getting paid to fill out surveys was not one of the better "easy money making ideas" going around. After dabbling in a bunch of paid-to-surf programs and the like, I discovered blogging. I liked the idea of writing stuff, posting it on a website then selling advertising to companies who wanted to reach my readers or selling affiliate products to my readers.
It was at this point that I made a big mistake. I started a blog was about blogging. While I enjoed myself and met a whole bunch of great people, the cash didn't exactly roll in. The only people reading my blog were other bloggers. And they were all pushing the same products or showing ads for the same advertisers as me. It was a fatally flawed plan right from the start.
But then something interesting happened. As I lost interest and posted less and less frequently, the traffic died down. The regular visitors lost interest and the only hits I got were from search engines - anonymous searchers showing up each looking for something very specific. But here was the revelation. The amount I was earning stayed the same. It was still a pitance, but it proved that the search engine visitors were the ones clicking on ads or buying things. Because of the topics I wrote about, these guys weren't arriving in huge numbers but it was enough to convince me to change my strategy and start again.
The upshot of all of this is that my preferred method of making money on the internet now is to create blogs or other websites about products and services which people are searching for and are willing to pay good money for. Then by optimizing the websites so they appear high up in the search engine results for my chosen keywords, I receive free traffic, a percentage of which click on an ad or buy something, in which case I get paid. My main methods are pay per click programs and pay per lead affiliate programs.
What's the point of all these ramblings? I guess I just wanted to share my experiences and leave you which some key ideas to consider.
When setting up an internet business, or any home based busines for that matter, the key is to make it scaleable. Getting paid to take surveys is fine but the income is linear. If you put in more time, you'll earn more money, but if you stop, so will your income. The same goes for most other legitimate online jobs. However, by setting up a website, it will keep generating income even if you're not there. A steady stream of visitors will show up whether you're there or not - day and night, weekends too.
Another key concept I want to convey is the importance of persistence. Keep at it. Experiment and try out new ideas and approaches - there's more than one way to skin a cat. And there is no single right way. We each possess a unique set of skills so what works for one person may not work for another. The key is to keep your goal in sight as you keep toiling away.
I want to leave you with something I read at the Warrior Forum recently (one of the better internet marketing resources by the way):
"People need to remember that there is no instant gratification and that most businesses that are successful take time energy and commitment to grow and build."I think that sums up the truth about making money online perfectly.
About The Online Money Making Guide
I know there are way too many Make Money Online blogs out there - so what difference is one more going to make? The more the merrier, I say.
I've been making money on the internet for about 2 years now. I've have reasonable success in some areas, limited success in some other areas and downright failure in the rest. This blog is about sharing some of the methods I've used successfully. I might even explore my failures as well. There is no doubt plenty you cold learn there as well.
I've been making money on the internet for about 2 years now. I've have reasonable success in some areas, limited success in some other areas and downright failure in the rest. This blog is about sharing some of the methods I've used successfully. I might even explore my failures as well. There is no doubt plenty you cold learn there as well.
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