To make money online (or offline for that matter) you need two things, customers and something to sell.
Finding potential customers on line is often referred to as "driving traffic". Social media is an ideal method to drive traffic as it is free. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and You Tube can all be employed to direct traffic to your website or blog. These methods have all been discussed in previous blog articles. Its worth mentioning that these platforms can be used to reinforce one another well and that the mix of platforms you use forms your social media strategy (this is a subject in itself to be covered later). Also never depend on only one social media platform to drive traffic for you, as the rules constantly change and this one source of traffic could easily be cut off.
Selling online has a number of labels. It is typically referred to as internet marketing and also known as online marketing or social media marketing if social media is involved. The only difference between "making money online from home" and running a business online is the scale at which you do things. This is basically down to the amount of time you invest and the number of customers you target. When selling online products there are two options:
Affiliates, here you promote and sell other peoples products. Commissions are typically in the 50%-70% range. Naturally it makes sense to sell an affiliate product that you have used yourself and found useful if not invaluable. The biggest affiliate sites are ClickBank and ClickSure but there are many others. Affiliate marketing is a good place to start earning money online. We will cover this in more detail later.
Sell your own products. If you have expert knowledge of something you can productise it for sale online. Typically this can be as simple as writing a Word document and converting it into a pdf. The graphics of your virtual product will be vital to selling online. Luckily there are many tools to handle this. Crafting your own eBook takes time and isn't for everyone.
Other methods of making money on line include:
Blogging If have an interest or expertise in a particular subject matter, start a blog about it. You can monetise your blog using Google Adsense. You can also drive traffic to other peoples products and be paid per customer that buyer or earn a commission.
Selling your articles on line as a copywriter. This can be done through freelance sites or you could apply directly to larger blog sites that require guest writers. You can write about the niches that you know or you can research a new topics altogether. If you are known as an expert in your field, then people will be looking for people like you to write for them. Writing sales copy is a highly paid branch of copy writing.
Get paid to take surveys. Numerous companies pay ordinary people money to take surveys that give marketing companies a better overview of their marketplace and its customer. I dont know anyone making a living from this, but it could supplement your income. One such site is ecashopinions.com
Freelancing online through sites such as ODesk or eLance. Here you can sign up as an independent freelancer for anything from data entry, web design or SEO. Recommendations are key to getting work.
Virtual customer representatives call potential customers and answer customer queries. Here you work for a call centre. In today's world this can easily be done remotely, working from home.
Selling physical goods through marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay. This is where the on line world meets the offline world.
In conclusion making money online is a good way to supplement your weekly income. The success of your online money making abilities will depend on your ability to learn. So "learn to earn". Many of the social media skills we cover will help you to do so. Start part time and see where it takes you.
If you would like to know more or if you would like a particular topic covered, please leave a comment below.
Regards, Chris
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