If you’re reading this, I assume you’re looking for ways to make extra cash – like most of us. Maybe you’re even looking for ways to make a full-time living online. If so, hi! I’m Rachel, and I’ll be helping you to make your laptop into a cash machine. Ready? Let’s do this thing.
The Basics
It’s important to note that marketing a product or service online isn’t done the same way as marketing a product or service in person. When advertising in person, you’re usually relying on someone else to bring in the customers. Online, you’re often relying on someone else to do the bringing in, but you can still play a role in the process.
Deciding where to start can be difficult. There are so many options – from SEO to content marketing to social media – that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Let’s focus on the basics: building a website, getting the word out, and making a few bucks here and there.
Build A Website
If you’re looking to make money online, you should first consider building a website. Having a live website is free, and it gives you the ability to test out different marketing strategies and see results almost immediately.
Building a website isn’t as easy as it seems. There are a lot of moving pieces – from picking a niche to figuring out how to monetize the site – that could get overwhelming. If this sounds like you, don’t worry! We’ve got you covered. Let’s take it step by step.
Step 1: Find Your Niche
The first thing you need to do is figure out where you want to focus your marketing efforts. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin, so pick a niche that you’re passionate about. If you’re not sure what a niche is, it’s basically a specific group of people (typically in the same industry) that you’re aiming to target with your product or service.
For example, if you’re starting a fitness blog, you might want to consider specializing in weight loss blogs or training guides. Or if you’re designing websites, you could focus on specific types of businesses (restaurants, spas, etc.) Or if you’re creating online stores, you could narrow it down to clothing brands (like Adidas and Nike).
Once you’ve found your niche, you can start to identify marketing opportunities available to you. It can be hard to know where to start – especially since there are so many different platforms out there – but don’t worry. We’re here to help.
Step 2: Decide On A Money-Making Strategy
The next step is to decide on a money-making strategy. There are a few different ways to monetize a blog – like displaying ads, affiliate marketing, or selling and renting out space on your website.
If you’ve decided to focus on affiliate marketing, you might want to consider using a tool like Royal Commodity. They make it easy to find markets – like Amazon – and connect with them. Once you’ve set up your account, you can get to work finding products that you feel confident will be valuable to your audience.
If you’ve decided to go the ad route, you might want to consider using a tool like Google Adsense. Similar to Royal Commodity, Google Adsense makes it easy to find markets – like Google – and connect with them. You’ll just need to set up an account, and then you can get to work marketing and selling your products.
Remember: you can’t just dive into any old strategy without proper testing. So, before you make any major decisions, take some time to experiment with a few different monetization strategies and then choose the one that makes the most sense for your blog.
Step 3: Set Up Your Blog
Once you’ve chosen your niche and have decided on a money-making strategy, it’s time to set up your blog. A blog doesn’t have to be massive to be effective, but it does need to have a good amount of content to make any sort of money. Plus, you can’t expect to make a lot of money off of a blog that doesn’t attract any traffic.
To get started, simply use a tool like WordPress to create a free blog. You can find a range of free blogging platforms at https://bootsnap.com/free-blogging-platforms/.
You’ll need to choose a username and a password for your blog, and you can put in a little bio about yourself. Don’t fill out all of the fields though – you’ll lose all of your entries if you do.
Once you’ve created your blog, it’s time to start setting up some posts. You don’t need to fill out every post – sometimes a simple short message will do. When you do have content, make sure to post frequently but not too frequently. Consistent but not excessive posting will keep your blog appealing to readers and make it more likely that they’ll come back for more.
Step 4: Test Different Versions Of Your Blog Posts
Depending on how much you’ve got to say, you might want to try out a few different versions of your blog posts. If you’ve written a few paragraphs, you might want to try out a couple of different ways of presenting them – like
Heading 1
for example, or
Heading 2
. You can also use different fonts, colors, and layout styles to see which one performs best.
When you’ve found the “perfect” blog post, it’s time to write your actual blog post and post it. Just make sure that you’ve linked back to the original article in case someone wants to read it.
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
If you’ve decided to go the affiliate marketing route, you might want to consider using a tool like Shopify to create an online store. With Shopify, you can choose a niche (like fitness) and then choose a range of products (like gym equipment or clothing) that you feel confident will be valuable to your audience.
Once you’ve got an online store set up, you can get to work promoting products that you’ve found valuable. If you’ve found a particularly successful product (or a product that you feel will be valuable to your audience), you can use affiliate marketing to make money off of it. For example, if you’ve sold a pair of running shoes to a customer who then makes a purchase of 10 more pairs – you’ll make a percentage of that sale (minus the cost of the original pair of shoes).
To find products to promote, you can use a tool like Shopify’s web-based platform or a dedicated app – like Shopify App – to find products that are relevant to your niche. Alternatively, you can use platforms like Amazon, which have their own dedicated apps (like Amazfit) that can help you find relevant products.
Make Money With Ads
If you’ve decided to go the ad route, you might want to consider using a tool like Google Adsense to display ads on your site. Similar to affiliate marketing, when a customer clicks on an ad, they’ll be directed to a product or service that you’ve had some involvement in the creation of.
The advantage of ads is that you don’t need to find products that fit your niche — they’ll come to you. The disadvantage is that you’ll need to choose which ads to display based on how much you’re willing to spend on each campaign. If you’ve got a limited budget, you might need to forgo smaller campaigns and go for the gold with a larger one.
Make Money With Renting Out Your Home
If you’ve got a spare bedroom or two, you can rent it out to make some extra money. Simply list your house on Airbnb or similar websites and earn a decent amount of cash without having to do much other than provide a place for guests to stay.
Airbnb is a platform that connects travelers with hosts who are willing to rent out their homes for a night, week, or month. Similar websites like VRBO, HomeAway, and FlipKey allow homeowners to list their properties and make money off of travelers.