There are tons of products out there that could potentially make you a few dollars her or there on line, however, to be successful, that simply isn’t enough. If you want to be in it for the long haul and make money long term then you can’t just jump from product to product hoping to make something work and ‘get-rich-quick’ overnight. Below I’ve laid out some healthy strategies for making money that actually do work because they have been proven and if you stick with them you can actually make a good income long term. These are proper business strategies and I hope you find something here that suits you.
Once you start to research online, you will quickly realise that there is an abundance of ways to profit from the internet. Virtual ventures are literally cropping up all over the place, but beware, the internet isn’t just infamous for the speed of information it provides, but also for the misinformation it can provide.
So, let’s get started. The only thing I will say is…please bear in mind that no matter which strategy you might choose, it will always take hard work and a great work ethic to actually turn a profit. You will more than likely have a tough few months before you even make a sale, and dare I say it, it will likely be six months to a year, or even more before you are making enough money to go full time.
8 Great Ways To Make Money Online
1. Amazon Product Reviews
Getting started on Amazon as an Amazon Associate is actually super easy. The only thing that you need to have is a website of your own where you can write reviews on Amazon products. Therefore, becoming an Amazon Associate is an excellent choice for anyone that is new to the affiliate marketing industry. It will cost you roughly $14 a month for a website and a good domain name and $20-$50 per month for website hosting.
The next thing you need to think about is what ‘niche’ you would like to specialise in. In order to be successful, you need to make yourself or your website an authority on a top and this means that you will need to focus on a niche. I would always advise choosing a niche that you are passionate about or that you love. At the very lease, choose something that you’re good at. Your enthusiasm for the topic will drive you write interesting and informative articles about it that will in turn make you money.
Typically, if you are a keen baker then you might want to write about baking and if you are a golfer then you might want to compare different brands of golf clubs and equipment etc. The opportunities are limitless depending on your interests and talents…no matter how bizarre you might think they are!
It is essential to research keywords to find out what kinds of topics that people are searching for online. Then, your job is to work out the type of products that naturally tie into what you want to talk about on your blog and what you can review in terms of product. You can begin by planning how you intend to review these products and what specifically you might write about them. What angle will you take with your product reviews?
When you have your website up and running, you will then be able to sign up as an Amazon Affiliate. You don’t have to pay a monthly fee or sign-on charge, so in this regard it is a safe place to test things out and really see if running an online business is right for you.
As an Amazon Affiliate, you’ll have the opportunity to promote products that are for sale on Amazon and as I’m sure you already know there are literally millions upon millions of products in this market place. You’ll do this by writing reviews about them on your own blog/ website. If your reviews lead to visitors to your site and these visitors lead to a sale, then you’ll get a percentage of the sales price as a commission. It really is very simple.
2. Display Ads & Contextual Ads To Make Money
In order for your new niche website to be a success, you will be looking to have a strong business model and part of this will be a place for display ads to appear on your site (sometimes called contextual ads when they appear as links instead of images). Through this avenue, the money comes directly through ads placed on your website, so you won’t have to worry about writing reviews and adding affiliate links, which makes your job easier!
However, to make good money from display ads and contextual ads, you will have to work hard initially to make sure you’re getting a lot of traffic to your blog/site. To bring or drive traffic means you’ll need to create a lot of good quality content that people will want to share over and over again.
In order to increase traffic to your website, you really need to think about your niche. If you love cats, for example, you could create simple memes that include pictures of cute and funny cats and kittens and share them on your social media sites with a link back to your website. People go mad for memes these days and will share them and hopefully drive traffic to your site, this should lead them to seeing your ads. A more basic route to go down could be simply to create interesting and fun titles for your articles that encourage clicking on Twitter or Facebook, like “10 Crazy Facts About Cats Before They Were Domesticated.”
You will receive a small payment each time someone visiting your website clicks on one of the ads on your site.
Google AdSense is by far the best known way in the industry to make money through display ads, however be aware before you leap in that there are some negatives. It can be extremely easy to be banned from Google AdSense due to their strict rules, and the worst part is that the company doesn’t even have to tell you why you are banned. Go figure…. so you can’t exactly rectify the situation.
However, there are a whole host of opportunities out there for display ads. Some that you might want to take a look at are Criteo, MediaVine, and Media.net. They downside is that they might not pay as much as AdSense, however, you can often find that choosing to go with a different ad partner can make a lot of sense for other reasons.
3. Writing Communities like HubPages, Xomba, Etc.
Some people really enjoy learning and researching and then going on to write about the topic and sharing their knowledge with others. If this sounds like you, then you could do well on a writing community site. You won’t need a website to do this because the community writing sites post your work for you. They will then pay you a portion of their ad revenue (from display ads).
Making money on a writing community site is similar to posting contextual ads on your own website. In other words, you will be the one writing and publishing all the informational content on a variety of topics—hopefully something you’re interested in sharing with others—and the community site will place ads and other money-making possibilities around your work. You will in turn share revenue with the supporting site.
HubPages is a good example of this. It has its own ad programme, however, it also partners with Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliates, and eBay’s affiliate programme. Therefore, if you have accounts with AdSense, Amazon Affiliates, and eBay, you will be able to monetise your writing pages in several different ways.
The way in which you receive payment, how well these websites will pay you can vary quite a lot. There are also a few negatives that you might want to take into consideration. Posting content on a community site as opposed to your own website brings up a few issues. Firstly, you are bound by their rules, therefore, you won’t have the freedom to write things exactly how you want to post them. From a practical point of view, you will also have to adopt the formatting style of their website.
Finally, and probably the most important thing of all to consider is that you don’t actually own the content, therefore, if their site was to shut down for any reason (as is quite common), you would lose the content and your revenue stream!
4. Retail Arbitrage
Arbitrage is basically buying stuff cheaply and selling it for a profit, in essence you are just taking advantage of price differences in different markets- that is what anyone in business is out to do really. A good example would be Target could be running a discount or getting rid of bulk items, however these particular items could be hard to find online, or at least demand a higher price. You could then sell it on Amazon for an higher price and bag the profit.
My daughter is currently obsessed with Japanese Anime characters, and, actually anything to do with anime. If you found a really great sale on Anime figures or keyrings or posters and could buy them in bulk, you could turn around and sell them for higher prices on your Amazon FBA storefront because, I can tell you firsthand, it really is a craze at the moment.
You absolutely can turn a decent profit if you are selling the right product and set your selling price right. However, there are some things to bear in mind!
Firstly, always ensure that the products that you choose to buy are marked down sufficiently to provide you with a decent profit margin. You still have to factor in shipping/storage and the possibility of returns fees.
Secondly, always ensure that there is actually a market for the products that you are purchasing. You definitely do not want to spend your hard earned cash on something that just won’t sell, even if it’s on sale. You can often find that things are cheap simply because nobody wants to buy them or nobody actually has a need for them.
The key advantage to arbitrage is that you can leverage the big sites like Amazon and eBay and you don’t need a website of your own. You do still have the option of developing your eCommerce store down the line if this is something that you would like to do. This would give you the flexibility to sell/ship through your own marketplace, however, this would also entail a great deal more focussed work so it would take a lot of consideration.
5. Drop-Shipping – Great way To Make Money!
Dropshipping is really quite like arbitrage, however, rather than buying from other retailers, you will do the sourcing of products from suppliers and resell them on sites such as Amazon or eBay. The beauty of this is that you will never touch the product itself. The customer will order from you, you will notify the supplier, then the supplier will ship the product directly out to the customer.
It sounds super easy because it is and you’re not involved in the making or distribution of the product (let alone customer service!). However, don’t be fooled into thinking that you have no work to do at all! You have to both market and sell a product that every other drop shipper in the world has access to as well as you. This is no mean feat!
Do you have the creative and innovative qualities to set your store apart from all the other stores selling the same merchandise?
So many people make money and earn a decent living online in this way, however, don’t be fooled, it’s just not as simple or easy as you might think (every business is challenging in some way!)
Sites such as Sunrise Wholesale, Dropship Direct, and Doba are fantastic to browse through. This is where you will be able to get inspiration of what type of product you would like to sell and which companies you would potentially like to work with.
When you have decided on which products to sell and which partners you are going to work with, you can then go ahead and list them for sale on your Amazon, eBay, or Shopify storefront. Once a purchase has been made, the wholesaler will ship the item directly to the consumer and you won’t have the worry about stock, inventory or storing anything in an Amazon warehouse.
6. Local Marketing
Basically, local marketing means that you would be internet marketing for local businesses. ‘Local’ marketing can be a tricky business to get into so I would be cautious before making the leap into this business, although it can be a good money earner.
I say be cautious because a couple of reasons. Firstly, marketing comes with its own steep learning curve, and Local Marketing has its own set of language that you need to learn. Secondly, you will have to be 100 percent confident in your own skills before you try to sell your services to a REAL business, especially if your aim is to convince them that you can add value to their business.
However, despite these hurdles, local marketing can be one of the most fun, rewarding and exciting ventures of the online business world. Furthermore, you are being of service to your community, what can be better than that to give you that ‘feel good factor’! An added bonus is that it is ridiculously easy to rank well for “keywords” related to the business because the competition for local keywords is so low. For example, ranking an article for “wedding planner” is very difficult. Ranking an article for “wedding planner in Anytown, USA” is so much easier as there will be far less competition.
The great thing about local marketing is that if you can successfully make one client happy then it should be pretty easy build upon that success with many more clients. It can often be the case that local marketers become overwhelmed with the amount of work then end up having because local businesses are so desperate to get ranked on the internet. They need you, so if you are able to successful provide them with this service, then this can be extremely lucrative for you.
7. Freelancing To Make Money
Freelancing is something completely different to internet marketing, nonetheless, you could most definitely freelance any particular skill set that you have.
Don’t believe that you have any skills worth freelancing? Then you’re absolutely wrong.
I would be willing to bet money that you have something to offer. I would imagine that you could do something whether it be writing an article, making a spreadsheet, or even doing voice-overs in your native language. You don’t have to be a professional to make money at this.
If you do decide to freelance the you’ll have to join a freelancing website. Here are some good ones to start with:
- upwork.com
- freelancer.com
- fiverr.com
To begin with, I would suggest having a look around to see if you notice any requests that you might find particularly easy to fulfill. Pick a particular skill set that you would like to include in your profile, and then make a couple of bids for projects. Being a “virtual assistant” isn’t usually a great pay day, however, on occasion it can.
Being a native English speaker and doing simple things like finishing projects on time, answering emails quickly, and being professional will put you in the top 10% of bidders. Let’s face it, would you want to pay someone $5 per hour that you have to teach or $20 per hour that can start in the next 10 minutes? I am sure if you have the money, you would always vote is for the latter!
Another great option for you could be freelance writing. If you have any writing skills at all, even basic high school essay writing skills, you have a competitive chance in the article writing marketplace.
8. Affiliate Niche Websites
Creating and building out websites on specific ‘niche’ topics and growing them to “authority sites” is my idea of internet success.
You will of course have to decide on a topic that you are personally interested in, but be sure to get something that you are sure that you can write about…and write about lot. For example:
- computer gaming headsets
- herb gardens
- DIY home remedies
- hunting
- paleo diet
- woodworking
- dating
- backpacking
- educational iPad games
- ….and so many more!
However, picking your the topic is just the beginning of your journey. You then need to buy a domain name, set up your website and figure out exactly what you want to write about, what is your niche going to be. When all that is said and done, you still have to make some sales in order to be profitable. This is what I do, and it’s what I teach when I help people get their first affiliate website set up.
I’m no genius. There’s no reason you can’t repeat my results. Learn to do what I do by signing up for at Wealthy Affiliate you can read my review here to see exactly what you will learn and all the tool available to set you up. It truly is the most superior affiliate marketing platform in the industry.
Let’s Wrap Things Up
These 8 transparent and legitimate ways of making money online can and will successfully put money in the bank for you. These aren’t simply get-rich-quick schemes, or ideas plucked out of the sky that ‘might’ work ‘some day’. These involve proper business strategies. I really hope this has given you more clarity and a view as to how I earn my income through affiliate marketing. Please feel free to leave any comments below.