How to Make Money on the Internet

Based on popular demand, I am revisiting the topic – How to make money on the internet. I have had to hold free seminars for friends on this subject. Since I have no immediate plans going on the road with seminars on this topic, however lucrative it seems, I have decide to share the information online, and take questions.

The idea how to make money on the internet – i.e. money comes pouring in 24/7 while you are sleeping, in church or mosque, picnicking with your family, on vacation etc is quite a romantic notion. This is the reality of many who know how to make money on the internet. However, there is no short cut to success, including how to make money on the internet. Some unscrupulous characters have made money writing books on getting rich quick on the internet, promoting schemes akin to pyramid or Ponzi schemes.

They make the money off you while end up with the goods. The internet is simply a medium. The success principles that apply in real life also apply on the internet. The major advantage of the internet is that it is technology driven, you can start a business with little or nothing, and can conduct your business from anywhere in the world.

When it comes to how how to make money on the internet, the best and most sustainable way to succeed online is to migrate your hobby or passion online. Use what you have but adapt it to the online medium.

What is it you really love doing?

Find a way to do it online and make money. We all have something unique to offer the marketplace. Thinking we have nothing to offer is an expression of low self esteem. We all have something others need. We all have unique experiences other will gladly pay to learn from you if you put it in an e-book for example. No experience is wasted. Even if you cannot put your finger on your innate talents, you have overcome something in life one way or the other, to have come this far.

You may have been jobless for years before getting a job, childless for years before getting a child or maybe had to adopt. You succeeded in losing weight, survived a long spell of having a loved one in hospital, survived an abusive marriage, was able to help your child with learning challenges to graduate from high school or secondary school, succeeded in accessing NHF or SME loan, got your business off the ground etc. I can go on and on. You have garnered valuable experience along the way. You have a story to tell. There are others that need help in areas you passed through or overcome. They are willing to buy your E Book, attend your seminar or both.

You may be good in cleaning, artwork, hand crafts, selling, speaking, writing and what have you. You can leverage the power of the internet to make money. The bottom line is that someone wants what you’ve got; wants it bad enough to pay for it, be it a service, product, book or seminar. Thinking you have nothing to offer is false humility and shooting yourself in the foot.

There is tons of information online on how to market yourself online or use what you’ve got to make money online (including selling unwanted items on eBay, Craigslist etc. I told you, someone wants what you have!). When you are about ready to start, you will have a good idea of what you want to do, and what domain name will suit your purpose.

Ideally, you want to have full control of your website, which means you need to invest some time learning how to set one up by yourself using the free content management system (CMS) software – WordPress or whichever works well with you. With a content management system like WordPress etc, you don’t need to know HTML or other web authoring languages or tools. Just follow the user friendly instructions. What you want to do will determine how you go about it.

Each CMS comes with a library of ready made website templates to choose from. The disadvantage of hiring a web designer is the cost involved. You need him or her on hand to manage the site, which will end up costing you more than the cost of the design itself down the line. You need to do it yourself until you can afford an employee.

You can start by reading the book – Multiple Streams of Internet Income by Robert Allen among others. This will give you ideas to get you started and recommended resources. There are tons of websites and free E Books that will give you a step by step guide. Don’t sign up to any program or network marketing program yet. Know what you are doing before you start. Knowledge is critical. You gain it by reading. There is no short cut to success, including how to make money on the internet.

Don’t believe a lie. People write books to tell lies to make money from people eager to make money on the internet. You can make thousands of dollars a day by sending email to your subscribers recommending a product. What they don’t tell you is that it takes months and sometimes years to build a mailing list of 500,000 genuine subscribers. Having the numbers is not enough. You have to build trust. If they don’t trust you, your mail will be marked SPAM, deleted, left unread or they may read but take no action. You have to deliver value first before folks will subscribe to your mailing list. There are no short cuts.

It may take up to a year or more before you start seeing good money. You need focus and persistence to succeed online, as in anywhere else. You have to keep going even during periods of no apparent results. You need to be fueled by passion to enable you push forward when the desired results is still afar off.

After opening your site to the public, you need to promote your website and carry out search engine optimization (SEO). You need traffic to your website. No traffic, no income. Again, there are tons of websites and articles on how to go about this. All that you need is the willingness and persistence to read, learn and apply knowledge gained.

When your website is up and running and bringing in decent traffic, you can make money in a variety of ways:

• By selling your products and services to visitors
• By selling other’s products and services for a referral fee
• By placing adverts on your website – banner adverts and text adverts (through Google Adsense etc or direct placement by advertisers)
• By accepting articles/graphics from advertisers
• By reviewing other websites for a fee
• Etc

As you grow your website into an authority website in its niche, you will get many offers for adverts or monetizing your website. Your work is in growing your website through adding unique content and rise to the top of the search engine results pages for your keywords and come to be recognized as an authority in your field. When you get to this point, the money is not far behind. The beauty of it is that when you get it right and figure out how to make money on the internet, having everything up and running, you can put in on autopilot with minimum maintenance required, depending on what you are doing.

For sites that need constant maintenance, with a decent enough income, you can hire an employee to do the hard stuff while you work on taking it to the next level, go do something else or take a well deserved vacation.

If you are looking for a way to get rich quick, the time tested advice is to try your luck by buying a lottery ticket. It may very well be your lucky day, you never know.