Can You Succeed in Making Money Online?
You can make a little money working online. But you can also make a lot. What you earn depends on which direction you go and what kind of work you get into. Some people choose to focus only on one area.
That’s not what most people who work successfully online recommend. It’s always better to have some variety when it comes to making money. That way, if one avenue suddenly changes or stagnates, you’ll still be making money in your other endeavors.
Many of these methods of making money online require little or no money to get started – and you can build them quickly. Even if you don’t have all of the knowledge you’d like to have about what niche you’d like to get started in, that’s not important. You can learn as you go along.
Affiliate Marketing Is a Good Way to Earn Online
Affiliate marketing can be an easy way to make money because you don’t have the time and expense of creating your own product. But out of the various business branches you can get into, affiliate marketing might bring sales, but it also might take longer to start paying out for you if you’re promoting on sites that have a two-month payment window, like Amazon.
As a general rule, affiliate marketing is not the answer if you’re in a bind and need quick cash. This is more of a long term, steady type of way to bring in an income.
There are a few ways that affiliate market can pay off. If you’re someone who has a platform, then you’re already ahead of those who don’t. Affiliate marketing works best if you have an audience in place that trusts you.
If people don’t trust you, then they’ll be more hesitant to buy from you. To build this needed trust with your audience, you have to make sure that you’re open about any connection that you have to the product.
If you received a free copy of the product in exchange for a review or for promoting it, then you have to disclose that information. Second, never promote a product that’s junk or is questionable just to make a sale.
If you do that, your audience will feel duped and will refuse to trust your recommendations in the future. On any products that you do promote, make sure that they’re items from marketers who are known to provide excellent customer service.
If you’re sharing a product from a marketer who has poor customer service, that will reflect badly on you. When you look for products to promote, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t put all of your eggs (potential commissions) in one basket.
In the past, many affiliates relied solely on Amazon for their earnings. Then when some states wanted to charge a tax on purchases from Amazon, the affiliate programs in those states ended up being shut down.
Because of this issue, affiliates in those states were left scrambling to find other affiliate programs to replace this lost income. One of the biggest issues that stumps people who want to get started in affiliate marketing is not knowing which products to promote.
Finding ideas in this area is fairly easy. All you have to do is look at your own life. If you create content about fitness and use at-home exercise equipment, then you could write reviews about the products you use and include affiliate links to some of them.
You want to be careful that you don’t overdo it with links or your audience and search engines might think your site is a spam site. Some experts recommend that you don’t just rely on banners on your site.
When you’re first starting out, it can be tempting to assume that banners will be your biggest money makers, since they’re front and center – but the truth is that most banners don’t convert very well.
That’s because most readers see banners and think of them as advertisements. So they ignore them. It’s call ad blindness, or banner blindness. What does work is having a contextual link.
This is a link in the middle of whatever content you’ve written about a product. You can include these links in reviews or articles on your site about the item. Another way that you can find products to promote is to see what other marketers and bloggers in your niche are successfully promoting.
Don’t be afraid to promote the same products because you may reach readers that don’t read or subscribe to your competitors’ sites. They might simply trust you more than someone else.
Even if a reader is subscribed to your mailing list and your competitors’, you still have a good chance of making a commission since studies show that some buyers will only make a buying decision after being exposed to the same product multiple times.
Info Product Creation Can Bring in Passive Income
Info product creation is another lucrative way that you can make money online. But this area of money making has a lot of other benefits as well. When you write and then promote your own info product, this helps establish you as an expert in whatever niche that you’re in.
It works to strengthen whatever brand you’re trying to develop. Plus, it gives you a source of passive income. A passive income is the kind of money flow that can put cash in your pocket for many months or even years after you’ve created your product.
One of the reasons that some people don’t create an info product is that they believe they have to do all of the work themselves. But you don’t. There are many successful Internet marketers who use service providers to help them.
By paying a service provider, you can shorten the amount of time that it takes to create a product. Plus, this can help you in any areas of the creation process that may not be your strong point.
For example, if you’re good with graphics, then you should create your own graphics because it will be cheaper and easier if you do that. But if you’re not, then you should outsource.
Same thing with writing. If you’re not great with writing, then try to outsource to a professional ghostwriter. Even if you outsource things like writing, you’ll want to put your own unique voice into the final product.
Once you’ve completed your product, you’ll still need to market it. This is where a lot of new marketers go wrong. You need a marketing plan. Having a solid marketing plan can make the difference between a launch that soars and one that flops.
Your marketing plan needs to go into effect before your launch ever happens. You can start by mentioning on social media that you’re working on a special project then post hints and teaser in the following weeks.
This will make your followers curious and make them more likely to read about your product when you’re finally ready to release it. Every good marketing plan should include an affiliate program.
You want an army of affiliates that are eager to share your product with their own followers. This not only brings you more cash, but it also gives you more subscribers and helps you find new customers.
You don’t have to manage your affiliates yourself because this can be a big job. Instead, you can use a platform like ClickBank, JVZoo or Warrior Plus. By using these platforms, you’ll have access to affiliates who are already looking for great products to promote.
In order to get the best affiliates promoting your products and helping you earn more money, you need to set a good commission rate. No one wants to promote your product for only a ten percent commission.
The best affiliate promoters usually expect half the purchase price of the item they’re promoting. If this seems like a lot, remember that good affiliates can put your product on the bestseller lists, which will result in even more sales for you.
But setting a generous commission rate isn’t the only thing you need to do. You should also create plenty of extras so that it’s easy for your affiliates to promote your info products.
Some of the tools that you could give your affiliates include graphics, product links, comparison charts, email autoresponder swipe files, free bonuses and more.
Once your product has launched, you’ll get returning as well as new customers signing up to your list. Many of them will have questions about the product. Make sure you handle inquires promptly and don’t outsource customer service until your business grows to a point where it’s impossible for you to handle it yourself.
How to Start a Successful Membership Site
There’s a good reason that membership sites are popular business avenues with Internet Marketers. These sites are popular because they provide a consistent monthly income.
And in a lot of cases, this can be a great deal of money. If you plan out a membership site, it won’t take you months or years to generate enough income online to be able to support yourself.
If you plan it, you can grow your site as well as your income very quickly. What you have to do first when thinking about creating a membership site is to figure out if you have an audience that’s willing to pay well for access to your site.
If you’re thinking about starting a membership site in a particular niche but can’t find other sites in the same niche, that can be a warning sign. Though it’s not always the case, not having competition in a niche could mean that the audience isn’t interested enough in your idea.
But it can also be a sign that your niche is too narrow. If you broaden your niche and find membership sites, then you’ve found your market. When you have a niche in mind, you’ll want to look at other successful membership sites.
You should join some of these other sites if possible. Think about it this way – if you were going to open a car dealership in a city, then the first thing you would do is scope out other car dealerships in the area.
You don’t do this so you can steal their cars or so you can duplicate their marketing. You do this so you can study the other dealerships’ successes and failures.
Knowing what works well in your niche can position your site for success. The next thing you need to do is decide how you’re going to build your membership site.
You can build a membership site by using software like WordPress and a plugin like S2 Membership. This will help keep your costs down – especially in the beginning.
But if you do go this route, it also means that you’re on your own for tech support. Since the backend management is the toughest part of having your own membership site, you need to compile a list of trusted service providers.
You want several providers that are capable of dealing with tech problems and can troubleshoot if something breaks down and you need help. If you’d rather not deal with this hassle, then you could consider paying for membership software like aMember Professional.
This means that if something does break, you’ll have a dedicated team that you can reach out to for help. When you start building your site, you’ll want to assemble a team of moderators.
Unless you plan on being chained to your computer for days on end in the beginning, you’ll need moderators. These should be people that support your vision and can help enforce member rules.
You probably already have some followers who would make great moderators. Look for the people who always comment on your blog posts, that promote your newest products, and that may already be involved in other communities.
To make it worth their while, you can give moderators free membership and even throw in some perks from time to time. You’ll also need a marketing plan for your membership site. You have to continually grow it, bringing in new members in order to grow your income.
Freelancing Before, During and After You Build Success
Freelancing your talent is a good way to earn money online. There are always marketers that are looking for service providers who know how to do a great job. If you’d like to get into freelancing, the first thing you need to do is pick what type of freelancer you’d like to be.
You could be a freelance writer, a freelance illustrator, a freelance web designer or more. Finding clients to build your income isn’t difficult. You’ll need a professional looking website.
This doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money. You should be able to get started with a domain name and hosting for around $25 or less in some cases. Just install WordPress on it and go from there.
You could also use free websites like Blogger or WordPress.com – but while this can be a solution to your problem, it should only be a temporary solution. Free websites often have disadvantages such as annoying ads, limited features, poor template selection and the URL is branded with the host name.
You can find clients on sites such as Elance, Guru or Freelancer. The amount of money that you can make on these sites will vary. You can start here and build your portfolio as you build a following. Once you’ve established yourself as a freelancer who delivers good quality and services, then you can raise your prices.
Is Coaching Right for You?
You can earn even more money by sharing your knowledge with others who want to know how to achieve success in your niche. What you first have to decide is if you’re going to do one on one coaching or do it in a group format.
You will earn more money having group sessions versus one on one because you’re spending the same amount of time, yet making ten, twenty or thirty times what you would one on one.
By coaching, you’ll generate a steady income. You can show people how to succeed in their niche. These are people who want help from someone who has been there and they’re willing to pay for your help so they can be successful, too.
You’ll be a mentor to them. You’ll guide them through all areas associated with their business. Some of these areas might include the best way to grow their income, how they can become an expert and how they can market their business.
If it’s in a niche like dieting, then your coaching might take them on a 6-week challenge and if it’s group coaching, they can be pillars of support for one another while you coach them with your guidance.
You can set up your coaching business in 30, 60 or 90 day cycles, for example. Obviously, the 90 day cycles would need to cost a little more since you’re not rotating in new members as often.
You can teach through your online forum, through webinars, Facebook groups, or through tutorials on private video sharing sites. You can establish contact with your clients through Skype or Google Hangouts, through phone calls, through emails or in an online group that you set up.
You’ll want to make it clear when you’re marketing your coaching skills – what benefits your clients will receive. You might want to mention specific ways that you can help them.
This might be something along the lines of how you can teach them to be successful using email or video marketing. You can offer ways to teach them how to build a web presence, how to establish a growing platform, how to blog, incorporate social media and more.
To get started as a coach, you’ll want to look at how others have done it. You can even hire a coach to teach you how to coach. You’ll also want to make sure that you have the kind of experience others are willing to pay for.
