In A Hurry? Click Here To Download This Post As A PDF To Read Later
The internet is the new battleground of commerce in the world. Some decades back, few people could have imagined that there would come a time in the history of man when every area of our lives will revolve around one thing-the internet. But alas, here we are today with almost half the population of the world intricately linked to the internet in one way or the other. Perhaps, one of the paradigm shifts brought about by the internet is the globalization of electronic commerce.
The internet is the new frontier of business and businesses that fail to evolve do so at their peril. Today, the internet is a money-spinning machine, and millions of people are making vast amounts of money through online enterprises. You can generate an active or passive income online that would not only take care of your bills but also provide enough revenue to expand and start an offline business if you know what works for you.
In this article, we will discuss the various ways through which you can generate income online. Depending on what interests you, you can make money online full time or keep your day job and do it as a side hustle. But first, we need to clear some misconceptions about generating money online.
It Is Easy To Generate Money Online
Nothing can be further from the truth. Consider the stress, hard work, energy, and sacrifice you will invest in an offline business before it gains a sure footing and becomes a full-fledged business. Even though an internet business might not need the infrastructure of an offline business, it still requires the tenacity, dedication, and strength of purpose to survive in the murky waters of online business. Nothing in life is free, and you would be shocked if you believed you could put in little effort and make huge windfalls of rewards. It just doesn’t happen. So, get it straight before you start-It’s not going to be easy.
I Just Have To Learn It Once
Well, have you heard the saying that “what got you here can’t get you farther?” That is the way of internet business. You must be on your guard every time and never stop learning. The internet is one of the most dynamic creations in the history of man. New developments are going live on the internet even as we type this piece. You should never allow yourself to become outdated lest you lose big on new and better opportunities. An essential factor in being successful online or offline is to continually improve your skills and proficiency as old ones become obsolete. That way, you won’t become irrelevant to your audience.
Be Persistent
Persistent is one of the most important ingredients of successfully generating a good online income. However, it can be hard to be persistent on a path for which you have no passion. This is why you must choose a niche that resonates with you at the organic level. With a strong passion, you can accept temporary setbacks and forge ahead till you achieve success.
Methods For Generating An Online Income
There are various methods of generating income via the internet. Blogging, freelancing, online stores, and affiliate marketing are some of the most common ways by which people make money online. If you are willing to learn these methods and put in the necessary hard work, nothing can stop you from making it big as an internet business person. Let us look at some of these methods.
Blogging
If you are a regular internet user, the chances are that you have one or two favorite blogs that you follow. Blogs are one of the most effective means of making good, in fact, fantastic income online. To be a blogger, you need to have expert knowledge in a field or profession. A blog is a medium through which an expert or thought leader in a field share their opinion on issues that concern their field using blog posts. A blogger must continue to provide regular updates to their audience in the form of fresh content. You choose a niche, and you provide valuable content that keeps your audience actively engaged. You may be wondering how you will make money from all these stories?
Blogs make money through different monetization strategies. These include:
- Product Reviews,
- Contextual Advertising such as Pay per Click,
- Affiliate marketing,
- CPA and CPM, and many others.
To start your blog, you will need a domain name and blog hosting. Next, you need to get your blog in the face of your target audience, because you can’t survive as a blogger without traffic. You can drive traffic to your blog through SEO, paid ads, and be active on social media. With resilience and the right strategies, you will generate so much income from your blog it would become your day job.
Freelancing
Freelancing is the new definition of work. As a freelancer, you are your boss, and you decide when to work and who to work for. Freelancing requires you to have a sellable skill that people or organizations are willing to pay for. Some high selling freelancing skills include:
- Website Design,
- App Development,
- Writing and Translation,
- Animation and Video Editing,
- Logo Design,
- Resume and CV Writing,
- Research,
- Virtual Assistant, and so on.
There are many freelance platforms that you can join online where clients and freelancers meet. The clients pay the platforms, and they will pay the freelancer after a satisfactory job has been delivered. As a freelancer, you can also offer your services directly to customers without using freelance sites. All you need is a website or any other means of connecting with potential clients, and you are on your way to financial freedom and being your boss. Remember, you need to be highly skilled in what you do to excel as a freelancer. So, sharpen your skills!
Online Stores
The internet offers an unprecedented opportunity to sell products and services to a global audience. Since the internet is unencumbered by the limitations of geography and boundary delineations, marketers can open an online store where they promote physical products to buyers from all over the world. You can sell clothing, footwear, jewelry, electronics, IT equipment, fitness accessories, and almost every other item you can think of.
Sites such as eBay, Amazon, Big Commerce, Alibaba, and Shopify provide a platform where people can operate online stores for the marketing of their wares. Facebook Page and Instagram Page are also effective platforms used by internet marketers to sell beauty products and related items. Are you interested in becoming an online merchant? Create a beautiful Facebook Page for your business, and you are sure of making huge amounts of money if you play your cards right.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is one of the most significant ways of generating income online. As an affiliate, you help to promote a product, and you get paid for your efforts. This is how it works; there are products, it could be a written or video course, health and fitness course, or a women’s clothing line and so on. These products have an affiliate program. The affiliate program encourages marketers who are also known as affiliates to enroll for their affiliate program.
Once you become an affiliate, you will be given an affiliate link. Next, you start promoting the product, and you encourage visitors to your website to buy the product by clicking on your affiliate link. For every sale that comes through your affiliate link, you get a specified commission. Commissions differ across different products, but you can earn as much as 75% of the sales price in commissions. There are millions of affiliate marketing offers on sites such as Clickbank and Warrior Forum. Some lucrative niches include Make Money Online and Health and Fitness.
However, affiliate marketing requires you to have some skills. You need to set up a website and write promotional articles about the products you are marketing. Its hard work, but it pays more, and you can take it a notch higher by creating your products and getting other affiliates to promote them.
Talking about Affiliate programs, we highly recommend the Wealthy Affiliate program if you are considering joining an affiliate program. Wealthy Affiliates provides the best opportunities for its affiliates, and your chances of success are given a considerable boost. You can choose from millions of products to promote, build your website in less than one minute and enjoy some of the best affiliate training in the world. All you have to do is select the area that interests you, and Wealthy Affiliates sets you on the path to success.
Learn more:
How To Learn Affiliate Marketing Online
How To Start Affiliate Marketing Business
I hope you found this article helpful. What do you think is the #1 reason people are hesitant about starting an online business despite all the benefits it offers? Leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Very interesting post. I really like how you explained the different forms of making money online.
Hi Eden.. thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
I am happy you found the article helpful
Great article!
In truth, I found Wealthy Affiliate some time ago, and signed in.
What can I tell from my experience, the community there is so friendly, that just the positive emotions/aura you will find there can make you succeed.
I enjoyed your Wealthy Affiliate review, and I will be back for more! Thank you for the information.
Hi Nikolay.. thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
I am happy to hear you found the article useful and you enjoyed my Wealthy Affiliate Review.
Wish you much success.
Great article Moni! As you say persistence is key when trying to earn money online. As a newbie to affiliate marketing I have a question, how long does it usually take before you see a significant income stream through affiliate marketing? I know this will vary from people to people. But say if you work daily and put in a least 1-2 hours work, do you recon it would take 3-6 months or even longer than that? Thanks and keep up the good work!
Hi Nic.. thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment…Nic you are asking me a million dollar question but let me answer it the best I can from my own experience.
Your success online really depends on the traffic. How much traffic you generate to your site!
If you are only generating traffic through search engines by adding quality content then from my experience it would take 6-12 months (more towards the 12 months) before you generate any substantial amount of traffic to your site.. so please be patient, keep adding quality content and your content will provide traffic for years to come!
You can speed up the traffic by paying for it but that is not something I would advise unless you have deep pockets! In the past I have wasted a lot of money on paid traffic and now I just focus on providing good quality content and search engines take care of the traffic for me.
Wish you much success.. be patient my friend and keep building your business.. Success is just waiting to happen for you!
Great website Moni. Thanks for taking the time to research and to share such interesting information. I love the way you clearly explain the various possibilities on making money online and I am particularly interested in the Wealthy Affiliate program.
I love visiting your website as I always find something new and useful.
I look forward to your next article.
Best wishes,
John ツ
Hi John.. thank you for dropping by and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your kind words about the article and my site.
John, If you have not already done so I suggest you start out with the Wealthy Affiliate Starter Membership which is completely free. This will include your own niche website, a website builder and training that will walk you through the entire process to get you up and running online. Then in time if you want to improve your skills and benefit from the Premium features you can take advantage of that.
If you need any help connect with me through my Social Media icons at the top on right.
Wish you much success.
You’re right about the tenacity and dedication to your online business. But it is so rewarding. Good info here. Thanks.
Hi Joan.. thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
I am happy to hear you found the article useful
Best wishes
Moni
I have become a member of WA community about 3 months ago. They offer a very complex program/course “how to create an online business”. I have been working on my website since then and I really have learned a lot! I have never thought I’d ever create my own website. I hope it will generate income in the future.
Being a freelancer with main focus on writing and translation would be as well an interesting option for me as well.
Thank you for sharing this article!
Hi Gosia.. thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
You have made a wise decision is joining WA. My advise to you would be to go through the training and if you do what is being taught at WA you will make money. Just remember ANY business takes time to build so please be patient and success will surely come to you.
Wish you much success
Moni
I also started blogging and Now I have many problems with my current hosting provider and it is not fast. I know that wealthy affiliate has a hosting platform. But how is this platform’s hosting quality? Is it fast enough and does it protect my site from spams?
Hi Furkan… thank you for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Check out this article for a Perspective on WA Hosting (and Comparisons), this will answer all your questions about WA Hosting and why I believe it is the best!