One of the most common questions that people ask me about is How Do I Make Money Online? Then I answered, just simply visit my site and select a post to read of your choice. That’s it, you did know now how do I make money online. However, I’m pretty sure that my answer was not enough especially to all internet beginners who want to know deeply about doing business online.
So here we go, I would like to give you a brief summary of how do I get started to earn some cash online.
- Plan Your Business. In any aspect of our lives everything should be planned so that we should all know where we are going, what will happen next, and when it will happen. Let us do something for the planet Earth than waiting our own planet will do something for us. Global warming for example, nobody yet starts using the preventive measures but many of us innovating products so that people may utilize it overtime. And that’s why business do exist. There is a lot of competition out there amid downturn comes. First things first, write a business plan. If you don’t know yet how to write your business plan, use Google or Bing search and they will give you many helpful links.
- Know Your Product. Once you have started to write your own business plan, knowing your product is being the first part of it. For example, web designing and web hosting are the most common products online. In this case, I started web designing even I’m not very familiar with CSS, XHTML, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, but I have only basic knowledge in HTML. There is no need for you to become a college degree holder. You can even start studying for you own. If you know how to use networking sites like Friendster, Facebook, and MySpace that involves HTML embedding then you can start designing to your own blog. You can use content management system platform like Wordpress or Joomla. While you’re still learning about your product, apply and test it immediately so that it will instill to your mind’s unlimited memory. I would say that this is some kind of a trial and error version because I do believe that there is no harm of trying and in every error you made that will make you perfect.
- Know Your Market. The best part is you should likewise know what your target market is? In this example, my target market are internet beginners, bloggers, and small businesses that want to automate their sale online or E-Commerce.
- Determine Your Requirements. What do I need to start web designing? Of course, I need a personal computer or a notebook is fine. It should connect to the world wide web – the internet. I used a web design editor Dreamweaver but there are many web page editor out there. I setup a blog for my portfolio to promote my products and services online using Wordpress platform built in with Thesis theme. I bought my personal domain and hosting here to establish a credibility of my business. I give opportunities to other people who got a great idea and share on this site by registering as a contributor or become a guest writer. I blog easily by using Windows Live Writer. You can download and use it too for free. I’m using Filezilla Client to download and upload my files on the web through FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Those are the things I needed most in order the site should be up and running.
- Utilize Your Resources. Plenty of resources on the information highway but I usually used the most common tools which I think very useful.
- SEO and Keyword Tools
- Domain Name Providers
- Web Hosting
- Forums
- Software and Tools
- RSS
- Social Bookmarking
- Royalty Free Images
- Directories
- Affiliate Programs
- Measure Your Success. Success cannot be measured if you have done nothing. Remember that “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are – Max De Pree.” At this point in time, you should know where you are now. In my site, I usually measure the following:
- Visitors – you can use the tool Google Analytics. The enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way.
- Readers – you can use the tool Feedburner that let you figure out how many readers are being subscribed to your blog.
- Clients – I can still manually count my clients here but you can be too my clients in placing ads on my site.
- Revenue – I recommend Google Adsense to keep track of your ad placement and earnings. Need more extra earnings to your website? Join Chitika – turning page views into profits. Not only that, I got unexpected income by joining their Chitika + Adsense placement contest. The best part is I placed the 2nd Runner Up in this contest. I thank you so much to all subscribers who voted this site.
- Innovate and Repeat Step One (if necessary). Don’t allocate all you eggs in just one basket. If you think that web designing or blogging will not make you some money online, you can create new products in the market. I could recommend you the following alternative as follows:
- Affiliate Marketing – selling other company products and you’ll get paid by commission if you make a sale of their products. Again you can try the above tools.
- Multi-level Marketing – The structure is designed to create a marketing and sales force by compensating promoters of company products not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of other promoters they introduce to the company, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation in the form of a pyramid. A good example is health and wellness products.
- Online Tutorial – If you are good in teaching you can be a tutor in any subject that you like best. One of my friends, Susan makes money at home and happy playing with her love ones during leisure time.
- Research Marketing – I will leave this to you as an assignment. You should do some research for yourself in terms of what products are demand during this era. I could say that business online is the best way to promote your products and earn some money while you’re sleeping at night. Let us not work hard, let us work smart so that the system works for you. Like this post? Repeat Step 1 above or subscribe in an email to get free tips in making money online.
I hope that the above points are very helpful to you to change your new habit. Seek a private place that you might think freely and start writing your own business plan now. Bear in mind that there is always tomorrows to come but you can never playback the days that have gone and start over again.
