In a few short years, the world of online entrepreneurship has completely changed. Wherever you look, there’s always some kind of trade taking place. Whether it’s digital marketing, freelance writing, or sales, you can make money online in some way or another.
The pandemic that broke out in March 2020 seemed to awaken a dormant desire to succeed in the online world. With literally thousands of businesses closing down every month, the chance to earn a decent passive income stream seemed more desirable than ever before.
You might be familiar with the concept of passive income, but even those who are not necessarily internet-savvy might be surprised to learn just how much money can be made online without any particular effort whatsoever. For instance, you might be selling your photos on stock photography websites for a few dollars each. Or, you could be designing and selling your own T-shirts on a shopify store. Even if you don’t have a product of your own to sell, you could take a leaf out of the entrepreneurial book and set up a drop-shipping store on a website like Shopify or WooCommerce.
Why drop-shipping? It all comes down to the fact that you’re essentially renting out other people’s products. In return for setting up their store and handling delivery, you’ll make a small commission whenever a sale is made. There’s no need to get involved in the shipping and customer service aspects that come with retail. You’re basically getting paid to browse online stores and find products that you can promote.
While there’s no precise data to back this up, it is generally accepted that the majority of internet-based businesses can be categorized as either MLM (multi-level marketing) or digital marketing businesses. With MLM, you’re selling the product of other companies and earning a commission when someone buys their product (usually a fitness supplement, beauty product, or kitchen tool).
For digital marketing businesses, such as SEOs, PPC managers, and content writers, you’ll be pitching and managing paid search ads, paid Facebook ads, and other paid internet marketing campaigns in order to grow a business. Essentially, you’re getting paid to find customers who will then buy the product you’re promoting.
As you might imagine, a vast amount of educational material online can be categorized in the field of digital marketing. With that in mind, it is important to have a good understanding of how to make money online in order to become a successful internet entrepreneur.
The Basics Of Online Marketing And Getting Started
Before you get started with any sort of online marketing activities, you should research the market, build your audience, and figure out your target customers. As the name might suggest, SEO is the practice of optimising your web content (typically, web pages) for better search engine rankings. In theory, the more highly-ranked your content, the more opportunities you’ll have for attracting visitors to your site, and subsequently, engaging your audience and selling your products.
The basic principles of SEO take time to learn. Generally, you’ll be following a three-step process to achieve better search engine rankings. First, you’ll need to determine the key words or phrases that customers might use to search for your product. Second, you’ll need to research the competition and identify keywords or phrases that they are using. Finally, you’ll need to develop content around these keywords and phrases and publish it on your site. Doing all of this successfully will naturally result in higher search engine rankings, and thus, more opportunities for marketing your products online.
What Are The Most Popular And Effective Marketing Channels?
To truly understand how to make money online in 2020, it’s important to look at the most popular and effective channels for online marketing. With that in mind, here are some interesting tidbits about digital marketing and online entrepreneurship that might prove useful.
- 88% of Global 500 firms use online marketing to generate sales.
- According to HubSpot Blogs research, email marketing is still the most popular digital marketing channel, followed by social media marketing and paid search marketing.
- E-commerce marketing takes the third spot, with display advertising, SEO, and PPC all falling somewhere in the middle.
- To make money online, you’ll need to prioritise which channel gives you the best return on investment (ROI).
- Email marketing has the highest return on investment compared to the other major marketing channels.
Marketing On Social Media
If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past few years, you’ll no doubt have heard of the wonders of social media. After all, with billions of users across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it’s fair to say that a lot of marketing dollars have been poured into this area. With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at how you can make money online in 2020 via social media marketing.
If you’ve been using social media to market your products or services, you’ll know that engaging with your audience and being relevant are the keys to getting people to pay attention and, hopefully, buy your products or services. With that in mind, it’s essential that you develop a social media strategy that is both effective and efficient. To do this, you’ll need to establish a standard content schedule, determine which social media platforms to focus on, and figure out how to use each one to its full potential.
Which Platforms Should You Be Using?
As a business owner or marketer, you’ll need to consider your audience when choosing the platforms you’ll use to market your products or services. In theory, the more targeted your audience, the better. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for the major social media platforms that you might find useful.
- YouTube
- Snapchat
- Periscope
It’s also important to note that, depending on your niche and the type of content you create, other platforms might also be useful. For example, if you’re a food blogger or food-related business owner, you might find that Google Shopping is a great place to find products that relate to your niche. Or, if you’re an e-commerce business or marketing agency, you might find that Shopify blogs are a useful tool for driving potential customers to your platform.
How To Use Each Platform Effectively
Being effective on social media means using the right keywords, joining relevant chat groups, and creating engaging content that will attract potential customers. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the practical tips that might help you make the most out of your social media channels.
As a general rule, you’ll want to build a following on each platform before you start trying to drive traffic to your site. After all, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that social media is all about engagement and building trust.
Once you’ve got a decent following on each platform, you can then take the opportunity to promote your website. To do this, you’ll want to use the platform’s tools effectively. For example, if you’ve got a lot of followers on Twitter, you might want to take the time to engage with them on a regular basis. Or, if you’ve got lots of engaged followers on Instagram, you might want to consider using a live video platform such as YouTube or Periscope to show off your products and promote your website.
Get To The Point
If you’re someone who is serious about making money online, you’ll want to cut out all the fluff. As tempting as it might be to jump into the deep end and start a social media account with millions of followers, it certainly isn’t necessary to become a successful entrepreneur. To illustrate my point, take a look at Pat Flynn. Flynn is a well-known name in the world of digital marketing and quite often is credited with coming up with the catchphrase “digital marketing.” Even if you didn’t know who he was before, you might have heard his name because he has over a million followers on Twitter. Now, let’s take a look at the type of content Flynn regularly posts on his platform. As you can see, the majority of his content is short and to the point. This is a tip that will serve you well when getting started with any type of online marketing. Keep your content brief, sweet, and engaging.