How To Actually Make Money Online - The Basics

Using the very computer you are reading this on right now, it is certainly possible to generate cold, hard cash on the Internet. It is done every single day. Some make only a few bucks. Some make enough to pay some bills each month. But, others, those who actually choose to vigourly take an interest in it, actually generate thousands and millions of dollars annually.

It is natural to be curious about how they do it. Are they scammers? It is easy to think so. Unfortunately, the field of "making money online" is now a HUGE market on the Internet. And when I say "unfortunately", I refer specifically to the many "me too" people who have gotten involved and who try to fool people out of their money. They make it seem like child's play for a select few of insiders. Then, they try to sell you the secrets. In many ways, the Internet is like a gold rush, and now that so many people have migrated online, we see a lot of shady attempts to make a buck online.

But, don't make the mistake of thinking that it isn't worth messing with. There are multiple reasons why the Internet is an IDEAL medium for making money:

  • You truly do have access to a global market
  • You can partake from the comfort of your own home
  • There are very few rules involved
  • Imagination and perseverance are the only prerequisites

Anybody looking to make extra money should look into this.

NOW..."making money online" is incredibly broad. While there are a LOT of different ways to do it, each having a sea of knowledge associated with it, the basics are actually really simple. In fact, those who are actually doing it find it so simple that they never bother trying to teach it to anybody.

 

Change Your Way Of Thinking


As we get started here, the first thing I want to go over is your mindset. When somebody speaks about making money online, how do you react? Do you think it is impossible? Do you think you have to be a super-geek to do it? Do you think you aren't smart enough? Do you think you have no decent ideas and that nobody cares about you out there?

Let me tell you right now - all these things are common.

But, let me tell you another thing - they all come out of nothing but lack of knowledge. So, needless to say, you now find yourself in the right place.

Let us look at each of these thoughts you may be having.

Do You Think It Is Impossible?

I can assure you that it is not. Hello, my name is David Risley and I make my entire living on the Internet. I can tell you, from first hand experience, that it is not impossible.

And I, most certainly, am not alone. In fact, I'm not even at the top of the totem pole. There are guys out there (Yanik Silver, John Reese and others) that make my annual income look like chump change. There are stories online of people launching an information product and generating over $1 million in a single day. Trust me. It happens.

Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that this is easy. If it were, I'd be making $1 million in a day and I can tell you unequivocally that I am not. But, I'm doing OK. I can support my family with a fairly nice lifestyle and I do it completely online. And, beneath me is a very large group of people out there all making varying levels of income online. Some many make $100 per month. But, hey, it's something.

So, no, this isn't impossible.

Do You Have To Be a Super-Geek?

Well, listen, the only difference between a geek and the rest is that one is making money. No, seriously, the whole notion of a geek has changed today. You don't have to be a pocket protector wearing social outcast to make money online. In fact, most people who do this successfully are very sociable guys. Internet business is inherently a people business, which I will go over for you later in this course.

As for the notion of needing to have superb computer knowledge to do this...again, that isn't true. Now, I can tell you that, as you get more into it, your computer skills are going to increase. It is only natural. But, the Internet is only a MEDIUM for business. And, just like in the real world, you do not need to be a computer expert to do it.

Don't Think Your Smart Enough?

This idea, quite frankly, is completely self-generated and I'm telling you to knock if off. Being successful in internet business is very much about mindset. It is about making the DECISION to succeed. This is not really a matter of luck. This is not a matter of throwing crap up against the wall and see if it sticks. This is not about hope. No, you have to DECIDE. Get rid of any lingering doubt that you can do it and it shall happen. That goes with most everything in life, and in most certainly is the case when it comes to making money on the Internet.

So, the only person in the world who can tell you you aren't smart enough is you. So, really, the only person who can answer this question is you.

I can tell you, though, that my experience is that you do not have to be a PHD to do this. In fact, some of the most successful internet businessmen out there never went to college. After all, what college degree is going to teach you how to do this?

Don't Think You Have Any Good Ideas?

Well, that's part of what this course is about. I am going to show you many of the different ways that cash can be generated online. This will hopefully spark a thought process within you.

That said, however, let me come right out and say one thing: Just about ANY idea you come up with to make money online has probably been done before by somebody else. But, it simply doesn't matter. This is a GLOBAL audience we're talking about. There is MORE than enough room for multiple fish in this pool.

Also, it is all about execution. The overall plan is one thing, but if you execute it in a slightly different way than a competitor, you've got it made. Don't think for a second that you cannot do something simply because somebody else did. Tell that to Google when they got into search as one of the little college project wanna-be's and ended up being the #1 search engine in the world. Google wasn't first. They simply did it better and differently

 

The Two Most Important Basics To Making Money Online


What I am going to tell you now would be sold to you by another internet marketer as a "secret" and probably try to charge you $147 for it. If you don't believe me, just go take a peek at some of the e-books out there for sale, all priced with a number ending in "7". And for that $147, you'd get a big long diatribe that could be summed up with these two basics. In fact, these two things are SO basic that it might be hard to find out there.

There are two very important things to keep in mind when it comes to making money online.

Buy Low, Sell High

In order to make a profit, you have to make more than you spend. This is simply a universal fact. Now, when you go online, this one fact will clarify so many things.

  • Selling e-commerce goods? Buy it from a supplier and sell it on your e-commerce store for a higher price.
  • Running a blog? Never spend more on web hosting and content than you make in advertising.
  • Buying advertising? Always bid lower prices than you will make when the person buys from you.
  • Selling affiliate products? Never invest more in advertising than you will make with your sales commissions.

It is universal. And those online businesses that try to violate it, investing too much in their site and not making money, end up failing.

It's All About the Eyeballs

In Internet business, you need to begin thinking about the Internet as a big collection of eyeballs. Each pair of eyeballs deliver attention units. And those attention units are as good as gold on the internet. Why? Because that means a real, live person is paying attention.

You can have the best site in the entire world, but no eyeballs means a dead site and a complete waste of space.

Getting attention (eyeballs) on the Internet is so vital that, with it, you can literally generate money out of thin air. Why do you think Youtube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion? Do you think it was because of the video content? Their servers? No, it was ONLY because they had a boatload of eyeballs. Youtube is a very popular site.

Taken down to a smaller scale, the only reason I am able to make money with PCMech.com is because of you. And guess what, you have a couple of eyeballs, right? Well, multiply that out by several thousand people per day and, yes, that is why I can generate an income.

 

The Lens Through Which To View The Internet

It is easy to look at the Internet as a big bunch of websites. Servers, bandwidth, backbones, browsers, emails, etc. But, none of that truly helps you see the Internet as you need to see it to make money.

As I said in the prior section, it is all about the eyeballs. That means real people, sitting in their homes or offices, looking at their computer screen. And on that computer screen is, hopefully, your website, offering, product, whatever it is you are doing. In other words, that person is looking at you.

Now, that person also happens to have a wallet. They have a credit card. It is very easy to buy something online. It is just a matter of typing in some numbers and hitting a button. Wham bam, money in your bank.

So, what is that set of eyeballs? IT IS A LEAD!

So, here is the way you need to look at the Internet in order to truly understand it as a business medium:

The Internet is a collection of sales leads. Each sales lead is worth money. These leads ebb and flow and generally move around like the tide. Give them a nice shiny light, the leads will gravitate in that direction. Now, the other businesses out there are all in competition for those leads (the eyeballs). They all want that attention. But, there are so many leads out there that many different businesses can serve the demand at the same time. What's more, anybody who is able to collect a lot of leads to themselves is very valuable. They have a lot of eyeballs. They can even partner with other businesses to share leads. All of this continues, over and over again, as one big evolving system.

There are LOTS of leads to go around. And each lead can engage in multiple things.

Why do you think some of the most successful internet marketers out there are so successful? Because they understand that it is all about leads. They work hard to compile large mailing lists and convince their leads to do things and buy things. They have a lot of eyeballs. And they certainly practice the idea of buying low and selling high. And they make a fortune at it.

Those who can take these principles and apply them to large degrees end up making a lot of money. If you do the same on a smaller scale, you might make some money but not at the same rate. So, it really comes down to these basics, looking at the Internet in the right way, and deciding how much you are willing to put into it.

 

How To Make Money Writing a Blog

As blogging has become more and more popular, it has risen as a popular way to make money on the Internet. Like all new things, a lot of buzz is generated and people begin to think that all they need to do is start a blog and the money will become coming in. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. It is certainly possible to make a decent living using a blog, however it is hard to do so until you have that most important commodity: eyeballs.

I will be dedicating an entire course to this subject in the near future, but the essence of doing this is the following:

  • Decide what you are going to write about on your blog. It is important that you choose something that you are highly interested in. For a blog to become popular, you must post to it regularly. You are going to have a hard time doing so if you are not interested in the subject. The lack of care will also reflect itself in the quality of your writing. Secondary to your interest level would be: is there a market for this? Spend some time Googling around for sites having to do with your prospective subject. Are there many out there? Do they look to have any traffic? What can you do differently? You can also use some of the keyword research services that are available on the Internet to gauge the quantity of searches on particular keywords. This is a very accurate gauge of the size of your target market.
  • Install your blog software. The most popular option, and the one I would recommend, is Wordpress. You can self-install Wordpress to your own server and have full flexibility. You also have the option of going with a free, hosted blog on the likes of Wordpress.com, Blogger and others. These types of services are certainly easy, however you give up flexibility which is going to be useful later if you intend to try to make money with your site.
  • Fine-Tune Your Theme. Wordpress has a wide variety of free themes available. You can use a free, pre-designed theme to get started. However, if you are serious about your blog you want it to stand out. This means that you're going to want to modify your site's theme in order to give it a custom appearance. This is, too, important when trying to make money doing this. Copycat sites don't make money.
  • Start Writing. The keyword to success with any blog is: WRITE. When first getting started, I would recommend you write a series of blog posts about your target subject. Make sure to make these posts very informative and useful. These articles are going to be your "pillar content". Essentially, these posts are what you will promote and what will convince people of the worthiness of your blog. Once these are written, post them all to your blog. Without delay, you then want to begin blogging regularly. The most successful blog sites out there get posted to at least once per day. Many are posted to much more often than that. What you want to avoid is boredom on the part of your readers.

Once you have your blog started, it is going to take some time to build up. While I will go into MUCH more detail on blog promotion later, I'll give you a few basics:

  1. Post regularly.
  2. Participate in the blog community by visiting other, related blogs and posting comments on their posts. Be sure to enter the URL to your website with your comment.
  3. As often as you can, be sure to link to other sites in your blog posts - especially other blogs. When you do this, your blog software will "ping" the site you are linking to. This tells them about your link and they are much more likely to come check out your blog. This could earn you a mention on their blog!
  4. Be sure to make your blog's RSS feed easy to see and subscribe to by all your site visitors.

Now, a blog has the ability to make money in two very different ways:

  1. Blogs are great promotional vehicles for another product or business you may have. In this way, you can use your blog to indirectly earn money by generating buzz on the Internet.
  2. Blogs, when they have a lot of readers, make great advertising mediums. This means that you can make money by running banner ads on your site.

Most bloggers get started by putting Google Adsense on their sites. Adsense will accept almost any site (as long as it is not adult, gambling, etc) that abides by it's terms of service. Adsense is also a well-paying service. However, in order to do the best with Adsense, you have to have those eyeballs on your website clicking the ads. A blog only visited by a few people per day is not going to generate any more than a few pennies for you. With that traffic comes numerous opportunities, Adsense being only one of them.

Many blogs also make money by earning affiliate commissions. By joining up with affiliate networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction or AzoogleAds, you can pick and choose products that you're interested in, promote them on your site and then earn sales commissions. The advantage of this money-making method is that it is not as dependent on traffic volume. Even with a lower traffic blog, you can still earn money through commissions. This can either come in the form of banner ads which click into the product you are selling, or actual blog posts where you review the item and link to it using your affiliate link.

Another option is paid posts via companies like ReviewMe and PayPerPost. With these programs you are paid to write a review of a product. The amount that you are paid is based on various factors related to your site's popularity. So, of course, a brand new, low traffic blog is not going to make much doing this. However, you can make some money.

With both paid blogging and affiliate products, it is always my recommendation to be honest. Do not artificially give something a good review just because you will make money with it. That dishonesty will be seen by your readers, whether immediately or later down the road. And once you have that reputation, your chances at making money doing it are out the door. So, while it IS possible to make money promoting a product in your blog posts, do not lie.

Blogging is indeed a great way to make money, but the passion has to come first. Those who have started a blog only to make money usually fail. Those who start the blog because they enjoy it have a much higher chance of success. This form of money-making online is very much about publishing and about providing value to your readers. There is a lot more involved here than sheer numbers.

Making Money Selling Information Products


One of the very popular methods for making money on the Internet is to sell an information product.

An information product is simply a product which contains - you guessed it - information. It is knowledge. It may come in the form of an electronic book, videos, an email newsletter, or perhaps even packaged into a series of books or DVDs.

The information in an info product is basically written to educate people of any particular market.

Things To Consider

An info product can be written on any subject under the sun. The primary prerequisite is that there is a market for it. In other words, would anybody want to buy it?

Second to that, and perhaps most important for you, is whether you have any knowledge that can be shared? Obviously, you wouldn't want to write an info product on building a PC, for example, if you have never built a PC before and don't know how to do so. You wouldn't want to write a product on making money online if you have never been successful doing it. So, the question to ask yourself is: What do I know about that others would be interested to know? And secondly, would anybody pay for this information?

Make sure to do your research before deciding whether anybody would buy the info product. You would be surprised at what people will pay for. See, there is a LOT of information out there. People are very often willing to pay a little money (or sometimes a lot) to have the information they need placed right in front of them.


In internet marketing, this is what is referred to as a "niche market". It is a very small market, but one that very little people try to sell anything to and, when you have access to the entire Internet, you can find your numbers right there.

Somebody Else Done It Before?

Often times the value of an info product comes as much in presentation than content. Can you present the information in a new way? Can you collect information that is already out there and simply compile it into an easily digestible form?

That's an info product.

It doesn't have to be something which you completely pull out of your own experience. Many info products out there contain info which can already be found in other places. It doesn't matter. The most important factor is the VALUE put into your info product. If your product can help somebody achieve something or solve a problem and do so with minimal hassle, then that adds value to your info product even if that information already exists elsewhere.

How To Package and Sell It

The easiest and perhaps most common way to do an info product is simply to write a document and distribute it as a PDF. PDF is popular because you can format it precisely and anybody can read it.

Some people like to offer multiple forms of content. This adds increased perceived value to the product. So, perhaps you want to explore doing some video to package with your product as a DVD. Perhaps you want to offer an audio version of your book. This could be as simple as recording yourself reading your material and offering it as an MP3 or even as a compact disc.

Selling your information product is, obviously, best done online. Your best bet is to create a web page and create what is called a "sales letter". This web page will contain all of your marketing points and basically convince the person to buy your product.

You can then advertise this web page in multiple ways on the Internet in an effort to reach your target market. If you reach the right market and target the right marketing "buttons", you will most likely make some money.

 

The Benefits of an Info Product

An info product is a great way to make money. It doesn't require long build up time. If the product is electronic in nature, it requires no shipping or materials cost. This means it is 100% profit in your pocket.

There's not many businesses out there that can say that.

 

Selling Other People's Products

One of the great things about making money online is that you really don't need to create a product of your own in order to get started. There are plenty of people out there who have a product of their own. And they are willing and ready to pay you a sales commission by simply referring them a sale. When you are making money in this way, you are called an "affiliate".

To some, this may sound synonymous to being a used car salesman. Try not to think of it that way, though. What this comes down to is that all important factor I mentioned earlier - eyeballs. If you can bring in the people, you are providing value. Product creators want that attention and are not only willing to pay you for it, but are usually anxious to do so. The sales commissions offered depend highly on the nature of the product. For example, a company like Newegg.com is going to offer very low sales commissions. Their business is computer hardware. The markup on hardware is fairly puny as it is, so Newegg simply can't afford to pay a high sales commission. However, people selling information products can offer much higher commission rates because their product is fully digital. Their profit margin is essentially 100%, which means they can pay you 50% commission or higher and they are still making a profit. This, of course, also means you are making more money.

Getting Started

People new to this would get started by joining the affiliate programs of sites offering products you would be interested in selling. You can find affiliate programs through a couple of different means:

  1. Individual sites usually have information on their own affiliate programs. Look for a link to their affiliate program page. It is usually found at the bottom of the page.
  2. If you don't have time to hunt one-by-one for affiliate programs, then set up an account with one or more of the big affiliate networks. These networks serve as "one stop shops" for all kinds of affiliate offers. You would simply find the products you are interested in and begin marketing them. More below on this...

Here is a list of affiliate networks you can check out to get started:

The method of getting started varies depending on the network you are working with. For example, Clickbank allows anybody to sell anything they want in the database and make a commission. Networks who carry larger, more reputable suppliers (like OneNetworkDirect) sometimes require you to apply to a particular program before you can make commissions.

In either case, the end result is that you will get access to any promotional materials available on the product you are selling. You will also get a special affiliate link which you will need to use to refer anybody to the product.

Joint Venture Partnerships

If you are just getting started with internet marketing and selling affiliate products, then you are not yet up to a point to partake in joint venture partnerships. For the sake of looking ahead, though, let's go over what it is.

A joint venture (JV) is a partnership where you agree to combine resources with other people in the field to mutually promote products and make money. Usually, a JV deal is dependent on bringing something valuable to the table, such as traffic or a large mailing list. If you have nothing valuable, you are not going to be an attractive candidate for a JV deal.

So, let's say person A has a mailing list and person B has a mailing list. Both also have websites. Both are selling something. The typical JV deal would look like this:

  1. Person A approaches Person B about a potential JV deal. Person A offers, say, 50% sales commission on any referred sales that Person B can bring in by way of promoting to his mailing list.
  2. Person B agrees and promotes Person A's product on his mailing list. He earns sales commissions on any referred sales.
  3. It could end there, or it could be a trade. Person B later wants to promote to Person A's mailing list. The same process is repeated.

JV partnerships usually result in much higher sales commissions than more standard affiliate programs. JV deals are individually negotiated whereas standard affiliate programs are the same for everybody involved. The power players in this field are very active in JV deals as they can bring in much more money than you would otherwise make.

How The Big Players Do This

Aside from JV deals, the real difference between making seldom, random sales and real money usually comes down to sheer numbers. And sheer numbers are usually scored through advertising. Serious affiliate marketers will typically make use of pay-per-click advertising in search engines, for example, to rake in sales leads. In fact, they usually throw every marketing method in the book at these products, marketing the affiliate products just as they would their own products.

But, you have to PAY for advertising, right? Yes.

Affiliate marketing taken to the larger scale is all about numbers. For example, if you knew that every referred sale was going to result in £20 net profit to you, you could use this number to calculate costs that you could take on to bring in that £20. The figures you arrive at depend on conversion rate and the cost you have to pay to get the person to your website to begin with.

For example, let's say you make £20 on every sale on a product having to do with golfing. You do your research and find a series of search keywords people will search for to find a product such as this one. You find out that Google Adwords is charging, say, 5 Pence for every click-through when using PPC advertising (the rate varies depending on the keyword). You also know, from your site statistics, that about 10% of the people who come to your site end up buying your product. For £20, you could afford to send 400 people to your website. If 10% of those 400 convert to a sale, that's 40 sales. That would make you £800 in sales commissions.

Now, these numbers are obviously VERY good and you are not likely to see this kind of radical return on investment in real life. In some cases, perhaps you will. However, the average conversion rate for a website industry-wide is usually more like 2% or 3%. In the above example, 400 visitors would net you 12 sales. This is still pretty good. If the search terms you are using cost more than 5 pence per click, then you would need to factor this in as well.

As you can see, you work the numbers and find a profitable setup. Once you find that setup, you can ramp up the activity by many, many times. In the above example with a 3% conversion rate, it was assumed that you were spending £20 in advertising costs. Now, what if you increased this to a very large number? For example, let's say you are spending a whopping £1,000 per day in advertising. If you are paying 5 pence per click and getting a 3% conversion rate, you would make approximately 600 sales per day. That's £12,000 in sales commissions! Now, even if the numbers are not quite as favorable, you can see that once you make the numbers work to result in a net profit, you can ramp up the daily budget in advertising and generate signficant profit. All selling somebody else's product!

Also, affiliates that do this are in a much better position to negotiate a special, higher commission rate because of the proven success in driving sales.

Obviously, it takes money to make money when doing it this way. But, I would spend £1,000 to make in order to make £12,000 and I'm sure you would, too.

Offering a Service

A way to make money online is to offer a service. Now, this method of making money is heavily dependent on the service you are offering. To open up your venture to the widest possible audience, it is recommended that you do something that is not dependent on your location or the location of your client. Some examples:

  • Website design and development
  • Professional writing, blogging, proofreading
  • Virtual Assistant (see below)
  • Marketing Services

If your client is able to contact you via a website and hire you despite location, then this is a good business to do online.

Virtual Assistants

The Internet has given rise to a new trade called virtual assistants. A virtual assistant, or VA, is basically just like an assistant or secretary you may have in an office environment except for the fact that this person is hired as an independent contractor and can be anywhere in the world. Virtual assistants are very popular among small businesses and independent entrepreneurs who need help but who do not want to take on the responsibility of an actual employee.

Virtual assistants can perform any number of tasks for their clients, including:

  • Writing, proofreading
  • Handling email and fielding phone calls
  • Data entry
  • Accounting
  • Online Research
  • Desktop publishing, document creation

The services offered by a VA are dependent only on that person's skillset.

A VA can work from anywhere. VOIP (internet-based phone systems) make it easy to forward phone calls anywhere. Email can be checked from anywhere. Remote desktop solutions like GotoMyPC and LogMeIn.com can even allow a VA to remotely log into an office computer and work from anywhere.

You can find more information about virtual assistants at the following links:

A VA would need to have a website to promote their services. You could then use various VA networking sites to promote as well as advertise on sites like Elance.com.

How To Promote

When offering a service online, you obviously need to get people to your website in order to hire you. You obviously have the traditional, offline ways to drive traffic to your website, including:

  • A listing in the yellow pages
  • Your business cards
  • Signs
  • Classified Ads

There are also Internet-specific ways to drive traffic to your service-oriented website:

  • Pay-Per-Click advertising on a major search engine. Google Adwords is the most popular option here. You select certain keywords related to your business and you can run an ad on Google and on any web publisher running Google ads. By selecting the right keywords and bidding the right amount of money per click, you can get good exposure and only pay for actual click-throughs to your website.
  • Running an ad on Craigslist. In most cities, this is still free.
  • Elance or RentaCoder
  • Posting on related blogs
  • Participating in social networks like Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn. LinkedIn especially is good for business purposes. On the other two, you've got a lot of people on those networks but they will react negatively if you come off as commercial. So, participate but do not blatantly promote your business or it will have the reverse effect.

Regardless of how you promote, the key is to network, network, network. Put your tentacles out into as many different avenues as you can and the net effect will be people coming to your website. From there, it is about having a professional site that meets their demands and encourages them to buy from you.

 

A Word About Services

I mention the offering of services online because it IS a way to make money on the Internet. That said, I wouldn't necessarily agree that it is the BEST way to do so. The reason is that services are, by nature, dependent on personel and time. There are only 24 hours in a day so, right there, you have a built in limitation to your revenue unless you bring on staff. With some of the other ways we will go over on making money online, it is more about eyeballs and ingenuity than your personal time. This means one person can make much more money.

The service business can be very time consuming. The Internet's real power is in audience size coupled with automation. Traditional service-based businesses have a difficult time getting past that limitation of "only so much time in the day".