The internet has changed all our lives – how our economy functions, how we gather information, how we socialize, what products we use, and much more. Now, more than ever before, entrepreneurs are realizing the potential of the web and are launching their own websites to make money online.
While the idea of online entrepreneurship may still seem foreign to you, you’re certainly not alone. According to a survey conducted by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), 66% of respondents said they’re currently not engaged in a business activity online, but would consider it. Even more interesting is the survey’s finding that only 19% of respondents said they’ve always felt this way.
So how does one become financially independent through the internet? It’s not as easy as you’d think, but thanks to the web’s incredible growth, along with the availability of inexpensive, yet effective, digital tools, the possibility for the online entrepreneur does exist.
Let’s take a look at how to make money online and how to become successful as an internet entrepreneur.
The Basics Of Online Entrepreneurship
Anyone can publish content and build a community online, but to properly monetize this content, one must understand the differences between monetization strategies and choose the right one for their needs.
The first and foremost difference is that of earning versus spending. When writing content and participating in social media platforms, you’re not acquiring any cash, you’re simply sharing your expertise and engaging with your audience.
Monetizing this content requires you to choose either advertisers or affiliate links as your source of revenue. With advertisers, you’ll need to find a company that will pay you to promote their products. Alternatively, you can choose to become an affiliate marketer and use your social media channels to recommend products that you’ve personally used and believe in. Some prefer to combine both methods – using affiliate marketing to drive traffic to their websites and using their websites to earn revenue.
The second major difference between the two is the time commitment that each one demands. To monetize with advertisers, you’ll need to have a relatively constant stream of content available. Depending on the strategy you choose, you may or may not have to actively build an audience for your content (more on this later).
With affiliate marketing, on the other hand, you’ll only need to have a single piece of content at the ready to start earning – the sooner the better. Once you’ve established this content as authoritative and trustworthy, the easier it will be to gain affiliate partnerships and increase your earning potential.
The Pros And Cons Of Monetization Through Affiliate Marketing
Let’s take a quick moment to discuss the advantages of the affiliate marketing method over traditional advertising before moving on to the next point.
To start with, you don’t need to have a full-blown marketing department to implement an affiliate program. You simply need to have a website and the willingness to accept affiliations with other businesses.
From there, you can launch an affiliate program and within minutes you’ve got a live stream of revenue coming in. For the same reasons above, this form of monetization is good for anyone looking to make money online, regardless of experience.
On the other hand, the disadvantages of affiliate marketing are numerous. One of the most obvious is the challenge of gaining the trust of new customers. After all, you’ll be recommending a product or service that you’ve never used, have no personal experience with, and may even feel conflicted about. Your objective is to get people to click and make a purchase, but often times this isn’t the case. Instead, you end up convincing people to try a product or service that they should’ve tried already.
Another major con of affiliate marketing is the fact that it’s a performance-based form of revenue. Simply put, advertisers will not continue to pay you if you don’t get enough traffic to their sites or if the content you’re promoting does not sell well.
Additionally, due to the nature of this form of revenue, advertisers can easily get tired of paying you if you don’t bring in new customers. This puts you at a disadvantage in case they decide to stop paying you altogether. To avoid this, you need to either actively seek out new advertisers or try to entice current advertisers with lucrative offers.
Choose The Right Niche
As we mentioned above, to become successful as an online entrepreneur, you need to choose the right niche and establish yourself as an expert in that particular area. While the idea of combining multiple niches may seem appealing, the truth is that if you want to succeed, you’ll need to focus on one particular area.
What is a niche? Simply put, a niche is a “small market or segment” within the large market for a product. In today’s world, the ability to target a niche audience and cultivate a community of loyal, passionate fans is the key to making money online. When choosing a niche, you want to pick something that is both unique and valuable. Something that no one else in your targeted audience is providing – or at least, not in the same way that you are.
For example, let’s say that you are a hair stylist who is passionate about fashion. You could potentially develop a niche site around hair trends or you could create content on how to style different hair colors. However, if your area of expertise is cutting hair, you can take this opportunity to develop a site around hair education, tips, and tricks. With your fashion and hair-related websites, you can then integrate an affiliate program and start earning revenue off the back of your students and stylist alike.
Build An Audience
To build an audience, you’ll need to take a step back and think about what your goals are. Do you want to make quick, easy money or are you looking to create a business that will eventually generate revenue?
If your goal is quick and easy money, you may not need to worry about developing an audience. All you need is a simple website, some content, and an affiliate program. With a little bit of luck and an aggressive digital marketing plan, you’ll have hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers visiting your site every day. To get started, visit ClickBank and create a free account. Once you’ve got your account, you can begin building your audience by adding relevant and valuable content to your website. To become a successful online entrepreneur, you must possess the tenacity to build a business that will last – something that not all individuals are capable of.
Make Money With Ads
With ads, your goal is to have other businesses pay you to promote their products. One of the most popular methods of making money online is to become a real estate affiliate where you’ll earn commissions from advertisers who want to target potential homeowners. To start, you’ll need to create a free account with ClickBank, the largest digital marketing platform. Once you’ve got your account, you can begin creating real estate websites, blogs, and social media accounts. As a real estate affiliate marketer, you’ll be able to choose from a variety of ClickBank products, including adverts, to drive traffic to your sites. Keep in mind that to generate revenue, you’ll need to have a minimum of 500 unique visitors per day and at least 20 completed transactions (purchases) per day. For more details, visit ClickBank’s website.
The Basics Of Monetizing A Blog
As we mentioned above, to make money online you don’t need a website – you simply need to have a platform (such as WordPress) and the willingness to allow others to connect with you online. You can then use this platform to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen area and use the blog as a means of marketing and monetization. While it’s not necessary to have a blog to make money online, it is necessary to have one to become successful. Why? We’re about to reveal a major secret. To truly become successful, you must establish yourself as an expert in your field. This means that you need to not only have a strong understanding of your subject matter but you must also possess the skills needed to communicate this understanding effectively. With a blog, you are quickly able to establish yourself as an expert in your field – just remember, your blog doesn’t have to be about your field of expertise to be effective.
Once you’ve established yourself as an expert, it’s time to move on to the next step. To monetize the blog, you need to choose between affiliate marketing and ads.