There are almost as many ways to make money online as there are websites out there on the world wide web. When I first started researching the different ways to make money online, I was overwhelmed with the sheer variety of opportunities out there. The internet has become the world's marketplace and a center for entrepreneurship unlike any in history. However, there remain a few basic models for making money and the medium (in this case online) doesn't change.
Each
of these ways to make money online is founded in the universal basic
principle of commerce - the exchange of things of worth to meet needs.
In our society, we use money to represent and quantify worth and to
make it more portable than, say, dragging your herd of camels around
after you. The internet has exploded at least in part because it makes
our things of worth (our money) infinitely portable. I can pay someone
on Madagascar $10 USD in about 4 clicks using Paypal. The currency can
be immediately converted and my friend on Madagascar will get roughly
19,000 Malagasy Ariary added to their account almost instantly. The
question is though, what can they give to me via the internet that I
find worth $10 USD?
It
turns out that while the internet creates an almost unlimited potential
for exchange of money it does limit the delivery of some products. The
key to understanding the ways to making money online and finding the
one that will work for you is to figure out what and how you will
deliver something of value.
Selling something tangible is one of the most popular ways to make money online and the natural transition from a small business to an international business that has happened ever since the internet first became wide-spread in the late 1990s. In today's market, however, selling tangible goods online is increasingly competitive and requires entrepreneurs to have a strong marketing savvy because not only are you selling to an international market but you're also competing with an international market.
Anyone thinking about selling tangible goods online should first try selling their stuff via eBay, Amazon and/or Half.com. This will help you identify if there's a demand for these products, work out the fulfillment kinks of your order processing system and enable you to have a solid idea of if/when/how your stuff will actually move online. These preexisting websites offer valuable ways to make money online with a lower overhead cost and level of technical knowledge needed than starting your own store would require.
If you want to sell your products online from your own store, I highly recommend Yahoo! Small Business solutions. This complete sales package, which teams very nicely with Paypal for payment processing, is simple to set up and inexpensive compared to other models. The price point makes this ideal for small businesses, however the system is a bit limited so if you're looking to be established as an online giant, invest the money in getting your own shopping cart and website system (OScommerce is a good one) set up. Yahoo! Small Business is limited and working with a flexible platform from the get-go will enable you to scale more rapidly. If you're only selling widgets though, and not do-dads as well, then Yahoo! Small Business is probably your best bet.
Advantages to this model - if you already have a product you create or a brick and mortar store, developing an online store can increase your reach and exposure as well as brand name. There's a large potential for exponential growth, depending on the product you're providing and it's market potential.
Disadvantages to
this model -
developing distribution systems for tangible goods usually requires
time, energy, money and personnel. In addition, developing products,
manufacturing them and getting them to customers requires traditional
business systems, permits and licenses. Of the ways to make money
online, this has the highest cost to start.
**
I include drop-shipping with this category even though drop-shipping
products doesn't require the distribution and mailing system to be
handled by the seller, because it requires similar marketing and
set-up.**
Products
that can be turned into 1's and 0's and transmitted across the internet
are ideal for selling online. Everything from music to web hosting to
books to photos and coaching can be transmitted via the internet. This
is perhaps one of the most wide spread ways to make money online. Ever
use iTunes? That's a sale of a digital product. Ever buy website
hosting? That's a sale of a digital product. Ever buy an ebook? Could
you write one of those? That's a digital product. Do you take photos?
You could sell those as a digital product online.
The key to
selling a digital product or service and making money from it is the
same as selling something tangible - make sure that your product meets
the needs of someone and then position it so that they can find and buy
it. Yea, simple right? Um, no. However, if you develop the skills to
identify and create products that meet digital needs, this can be a
lucrative way to create lasting income with little overhead. Unlike
tangible products, an entire store is frequently unnecessary - just a
website and a Paypal button. In addition, you can set up your sales
system to be entirely automated from purchase to delivery.
If it
sounds like I favor these ways to making money online as opposed to
working with tangible products, that's correct. My goal with making
money online has always been to create passive or near-passive income
that requires little ongoing maintenance from me so that I'm free to do
other things with my time rather than work or manage other people. This
is not the case for everyone - many people dream of growing large
businesses, providing jobs hundreds or thousands of people in their
communities and becoming a top business person. With each of these
business models the key is to develop a business that will meet your
personal goals.
Advantages to this model -
Distribution and delivery are very easy. In addition, you only need to
create an item once and you can make money from it indefinitely. This
model also has a much lower cost of entry than selling 'hard' or
tangible goods online.
Disadvantages to this
model-
You have to create or have created for you all the goods that you're
going to sell. There's a higher level of technical knowledge required
in getting the distribution system set up.
(aka - start your own internet advertising network)
Google is the multi-billion dollar example of why this is one of the best ways to make money online. However, it can also be one of the most frustrating if you focus on the income and not on the service you're providing. Here's the basis for how this works: You create something that people on the internet are looking for. Be it a tool, a service or a hub of information. You put this golden nugget up on a website and give it away to people for free. Because it is something people want and need and better yet, you're giving it away for free, eventually you build a large quantity of traffic to your website. Thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people come to your little piece of internet real estate every month.
Guess what? Businesses who are doing model #1 and #2 want access to the traffic that you've got on your site. Because they're not giving something away for free, they can't get it themselves so they want access to yours. They want it so bad that they'll pay you for it. There are many ways that this can manifest for you - you could sell advertising space, promote affiliate programs or even generate leads for these businesses of people who want specifically what they're selling.
This is my favorite option of the ways to make money online. Because it requires little maintenance (depending on what your free product is) it is infinitely expandable as well as being a potential source of passive income.
Advantages to
this model - If
you've got the traffic, this can be a very lucrative way to make money
that doesn't require you to do much of anything. Again, look at Google,
which is a billion dollar business built on just this model.
Disadvantages - Building
traffic and high-quality free resources is hard and time consuming.
There can be quite a lag between when you begin your business and when
you actually start to see income.
Just as all these versions, when they're implemented offline, require employees to work them - so do their online counterparts require workers. If you want the regularity or lack or struggle that comes with working for someone else, then trading your time for money is one of the greatest ways to make money online.
There are many ways you can make money working online:
Number Five - Make Your Money Do The Work
I do not know much about how to make money investing online, but I know that a lot of people do. I'm working on developing a page about this, because I know it's one of the most popular ways to make money online. Chances are that if you have a retirement plan, you can start to make money investing online through that as most plan companies now offer online investment management.
In this same category, but quite
different in technique and skill sets, are people who make money
trading online. These are the infamous 'day traders.' Yes, people do
make money doing this - often large sums of money. While most of them
aren't focused on IPOs anymore, many still invest in the FOREX market
(currency exchange) and it's daily volatility and leverage
opportunities makes this a great way to make (or loose!) large sums of
money.
There are lots of great opportunities to make money online. If you know of one that I've not included here, or if you want more information about one I've touched on briefly, let me know!
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