Making money online from home

How to make an income using the Internet

There are so many information products on the internet now that are aimed at showing you how to make money online. So many in fact, that it’s highly unlikely that you haven’t come across at least a few offers that have tempted you to part with your money.

Many claim to show you how easy it is to make lots of money using their information packed guides and courses. And when you read what they have to say, it’s hard to believe that you can’t fail to start making money too. The truth however, is that most of the information that is sold online is poorly presented. It often provides too much information for the average person to take in. Or the procedures described are simply beyond the capabilities of a newcomer with no prior experience or knowledge of the internet marketing world. For someone looking for advice on how to get started and make a regular income from the internet, it’s hard to sort out the good stuff from the bad.

My advice is to only buy information from someone who has a proven track record of making money online.
(click here for ones I recommend)

First though, you need to decide how you want to make money online and consider whether you have the basic skills required.

Do you want to be an affiliate marketer and promote other people’s products?

Do you want to sell your own products?

Do you want to build niche, information based websites that provide an income from advertisements?

Do you want to design websites for other people or businesses?

These are just a few of the opportunities that exist. I have tried all of these and made money. But certain methods work better for me than others, and that’s because they fit in better with my abilities and the way I like to work.

YOU will have to decide what works best for you.

Here are some of the pros and cons of each method described above.

1. Affiliate marketing

The advantages of affiliate marketing are that you don’t have to be responsible for stocking or distributing the products. You simply promote other people’s products and make a commission when a sale results from your affiliate referral link. These coded links can be placed on your own website, in your emails, on a blog, or on someone else’s website if they allow them.

The disadvantages of affiliate marketing is that you need to learn a number of skills. These include good marketing skills which usually involves an effective writing style for advertising and promotions… (describing the benefits that the product or service provides to the potential buyer) And of course a fair amount of research to find the best products to promote (and bring in the best commissions)

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. However, affiliate marketing can be very lucrative once you have learned the ropes.

One of the most sucessful affiliate marketers I know of is Ewan Chia. His book ‘How I Made My First Million on the Internet’ is essential reading and is available from Amazon and other good online booksellers. He also provides an in depth training course that is suitable for new internet entrepreneurs called Super Affiliates Inner Circle which you can obtain through Ewan’s website.

Another very successful affiliate marketer is Rosalind Gardner and her Affiliate Marketing Blueprint is also a good introduction and training product for new affiliates.

2. Sell your own products

The advantage of selling your own product is that you keep all of the profit. If you sell digital products, you have a great opportunity to make a lot of money if you have an army of affiliates promoting your product. Even if you give your affiliates 50% or more of the sale price in commision, digital products cost so little to produce that there’s still huge potential for massive profits.

The disadvantage of selling your own digital product mainly relates to the time and effort you need to put in to create them. And again, quite a bit of research may be required in order to come up with a worthy product that people will buy. However, some of the workload can be taken off you by outsourcing the work to others. Preferably someone with a good track record for writing good content. Or you may be able to source some high quality PLR information that can be tailored to suit your ow needs.

Whene you’re selling tangible goods online, via an ecommerce website or perhaps through ebay, there are many more factors involved. i.e. delivery costs, the purchase and storage of stock, (plus the costs of aquiring and running a warehouse or lock-up in the case of storing large goods) plus the marketing and promotion costs involved in obtaining customers, and the extra costs that an ecommerce website normally incurs. The time factor in running a business like this can also be very demanding.

3. Build niche information websites

The advantage of building niche websites that provide an income from advertising is fairly obvious. If the niche chosen is popular and you receive a steady stream of visitors who are interested in the information you provide, there is potential to make a passive income from the websites you create. And believe me, once you have built a successful niche website, there is nothing more satisfying than receiving an income from something that you create once that will produce a regular income, possibly for many months or even years to come.

Adsense is the king of the hill when it comes to making money from advertisements placed on information based websites. There are many alternatives though. And depending on the niche subject, there is also a good opportunity to incorporate affiliate based promotions within your site.

The disadvantage of building niche information websites are fairly numerous, but by no means insurmountable. First of all, you obviously need to know how to build and publish a website, and present it in a reasonably professional way. Secondly, you need to have at least some basic knowledge of the subject you want to base your site around, and with research you can make it even better. Thirdly, you can’t expect to build a website based on a general theme such as ‘D.i.y’ or ‘Golf’ and expect it to be a traffic magnet. There’s just too much competition out there, and your site is unlikely to get many visitors at all. It’s much better to focus on more targeted sub-themes such as ‘How to build a bedroom wall unit’ or ‘how to improve your golf swing speed’ this way you’ll have a better chance of getting traffic from the search engines.

But this brings us to our next hurdle… knowing how to get visitors to your website. Unless you’re exceptionally good at marketing and social networking, your goal will be to get targeted traffic from the search engines. This can be done through careful keyword research and applying ‘search engine optimisation to your website’. Again, you need to have some knowledge of SEO to make this work. These skills can be learned, but are you willing to spend the time and effort to learn them? If you are, then by choosing a specific sub-niche where there’s potential to make money from associated advertising (only certain subjects may have appropriate related products or services) then you’ll have a much better chance of making money online from niche websites.

4. Designing websites

Designing websites also requires certain creative skills to be successful. If you’re not the creative type, then this is probably not the way for you to make money online. However, if you have good organisational skills and are willing to pay a web designer to do the work for you, then it’s still a viable option. There are still thousands upon thousands of potential business customers who may be considering having a website made for their business. If you can tap into a specific market, then you’ll have a better chance of success.

For example, if you make it your goal to become proficient at designing websites for a certain type of business, then you can focus on finding the ones who still haven’t got a website. This is just a matter of basic research, after which you can approach potential clients and offer your services in a friendly, but professional way.

Although it can be a time-consuming occupation, it can also be fairly lucrative. If you can also provide the web hosting service your clients need to maintain their websites, you can build up a secondary income that takes much less effort to produce. You don’t even need to own or maintain the equipment required. All you need to do is become a ‘reseller’ for the web hosting company that provides the service.

Disadvantages? Dealing with technical problems, trying to keep customers happy, communication problems, administration costs, and as I mentioned previously, it can be a time-consuming occupation, which requires the same dedication as any other type of business.

As I said earlier, these are just a few of the opportunities that exist to make money online. These are the ones I have tried and still use today to make a regular income from the internet.

Other methods to consider? Selling stuff on ebay, network marketing, ezine publishing, managing social media etc.

It’s up to you to decide what suits you personally. And you can certainly use more than one method to make money. One thing you can be sure of though…. don’t gamble your money on false promises and hyped up sales talk. Remember to only take advice from those who have a proven track record for making money from the internet, and still continue to so. Then learn from their experience and their teachings by following their advice to the letter.