Carlos On Web :: Going techie without going broke

The Internet is a goldmine with vast reserves available to anyone for the taking. But unlike the physical goldmine where there is finite amount of resources and works on a zero-sum principle (one’s gain is another’s loss and vice-versa), the wealth available online is virtually unlimited and grows more as the technology advances.

And the best part — the one the I love the most — is that it is a level-playing field.

Almost anyone can possibly succeed online. Rich, poor, well-connected, Mr Unknown, genius or under-schooled, young and old … these things don’t matter. With luck, timing and the right attitude, anyone can make it.

If someone is throwing away money and all you have to do to get some is to learn how to catch, what would you do?

I don’t know about you, but for me, I better learn how to catch and hone that skill to perfection!

The fact that real money can be made through the Internet is nothing new.

But if you are the Johnny-come-lately type, this article is a gentle introduction on how money is made online.

Listed below are three easy ways to make money online, through a website. See if there is a hole you can fit in and hopefully you can begin your online business journey by taking the steps leading to the direction of Internet money.

1. Sell Your Own Products or Services

Most entrepreneurs would perfectly fit here. You have products that you have created and that you are truly proud of? Go online and let the whole world know about it. Who knows? Someone from the other side of the planet is dying to have your product.

Professionals and consultants who are very good at doing their own things would find it very fulfilling if they go online and expand their reach. This is also one way of standing out amongst the crowd.

Go online or die. Someone said it best: “If your business is not on the Internet, your business will soon be out of business.”

2. Sell or Promote Someone Else’s Products or Services

Are you too lazy to create your own product? No problem!

After all, after one has created the product, the next step would be to sell it and eventually put it in the hands of the buying customers. In fact, the vast majority of your business activity will be on marketing and selling the product. It only makes sense. Without sales, your business will die.

Peter Drucker, the man considered by many to be the person who “invented management”, said that any business has only two basic functions: Marketing and Innovation.

And what does it mean to you? A lot, I hope!

This means that if you can effectively market, promote, or sell someone else’s products you smell good to the company. Because of competition, many companies are on the look-out for the best marketers out there.

If that’s you, here’s good news: you can earn by becoming an affiliate of the company.

In simple terms, here’s how it works:

1. You put up a website and sign-up as an affiliate of the company.
2. The company gives you the code that you can use in promoting their product.
3. When the visitor that you referred buys the products, you can you get a referral fee.

Sounds good? A lot of online companies are following this business model. There should be something for you. Start exploring now.

3. Selling Ad Spaces

This one is the lazy man’s monetization model.

It is easy and it is also hard. Am I crazy?

No… I mean, not yet. Let me explain.

If you happen to have created a high-trafficked website — everyone who owns a website should strive to have high-traffic — and you don’t know how to monetize it, they is the way to go.

Remember: Traffic means people and people equals money. There are a lot of online businesses out there that are dying to have people visiting them. And if you can direct some of the traffic from your website to theirs, you can earn that way.

Remember: Traffic means people and people equals money. There are a lot of online businesses out there that are dying to have people visiting them. And if you can direct some of the traffic from your website to theirs, you can earn that way.

What you will do is put some ads on strategic places on your website. Do it in a way that helps your website visitors. Those ads should complement your content. If your website is all about Yoga, for instance, some ads related to meditation and yogic exercises (called asanas) would be very helpful to your website visitor.

You help your web visitors by giving other resources via your ads, the company that uses your ads space pays you in return for giving them the favor of driving traffic to their business.

That’s another example of a Win-Win business partnership.

Getting those ads is quite simple, or easy if you may. There are companies that will directly rent a space on your website. And there are other companies like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and others that provide you with HTML code to put on your website and do everything else programmatically.

The hard part is getting the traffic in the first place.

This entry was posted under Business Websites, Guide For Newbies.