First I would like to thank Hesham for being so gracious and inviting me to be a part of this blog. I am looking forward to contributing and building relationships here.
The title probably drew you in because everyone wants to find the easy way to make money online, and not to burst your bubble, but I don’t hold those secrets, and if I did I would probably hold on to them for myself [insert evil laugh].
I do, however, make money online. It isn’t easy, at least it hasn’t been for me. I have worked hard, performed countless hours of research, experimented with different ideas, and tested, tested, and tested some more.
I want to make a few points in regards to making money online, and these are just my opinion based on my experiences:
AdSense and Affiliates:
I personally have never had much luck with either of these. I am not claiming that you can’t make money with these ads, I am just saying that for me it hasn’t been great. There are bloggers that make plenty of money this way. There are many variables though.
You need traffic to make money on ads, lots of traffic. If your site is getting 20-30k visitors a month or more (from search) then you can probably make money on ads like this. It is a numbers game, and that takes time to build up, so if you are looking to make money online this way, don’t quit your day job too fast.
It is important to note that other bloggers don’t usually click on ads, it is almost as if they can’t see them. You must get good search traffic to make money on AdSense or affiliates. I know bloggers that picked the right niche, wrote everyday, and built up enough traffic to make a living this way. But it also took time, proper research, a quality theme and lots of testing to get there.
Products and Services:
This is where I have succeeded in making money online. I sell products and services, some are my own (mostly services) and the products are mainly purchased from manufacturers and re-sold as retail.
I have watched many bloggers come and go recently, writing about how to make money online because that is what Darren Rouse or David Risley are doing. The difference is, they were making money online (a lot of money) before they started writing about how to make money online. Also, they have been doing this for years, not just a few months. And I promise you, they make more money from their own products than from any ads they have on their sites.
Patience:
Patience is something I have never been really good at, but it is a necessity if you want to make it in this business. You have to allow yourself the time to make a brand for yourself, build a community around your blog, build up a decent amount of traffic, etc.. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Work hard, gain exposure, write about what you have experience in and you can make it. No one is guaranteed success online, in fact most fail.
Determination:
You have to convince yourself that you WILL make it before you can convince others. Most bloggers have to go through convincing family and friends that blogging is a “real” job, but if they haven’t even convinced themselves it is a hard sell.
Be determined to do well. Do research, study your competition (I prefer to call them colleagues), plan your course of action before you start. And then never give up.
Don’t Believe Everything You Read:
This one is really important, but hard to grip. It is really easy to believe every story on the internet, fall for every squeeze page tutorial, and think this will be easy. If you use logic, you can weed out the stuff that is a load of horse manure and then find the gem that actually helps you get on your way.
Conclusion:
Don’t be afraid to fail, you most likely will several times. Don’t be afraid to try different things, this has worked for me in the past. Be determined that you can make it. If you fail, pick yourself up and try again.
Always research before setting an idea into motion, turn on your niche finder and try to find out a lot from researching about a niche or product before trying to make money with it.