You have a spare room in your house, perhaps even a spare bed. You could put a couch in there and invite some friends over to sleep at night. Or perhaps you could even put a few beds in there and convert the room into a cozy little guest house. You might even call it a ‘man cave’ because, well, it’s a place for men to relax. No matter what you call it, it is your spare time that you are investing in.
When you have spare time, you are usually not working or studying. So what are you going to do with it? You can make money online by trying out different programs, courses, and opportunities that are out there. It may be a while before you can truly call yourself a ‘digital nomad’, but you can get started today by making a few small changes to your daily routine.
Start A Blog
Blogs are quite popular these days, and it’s an easy way to make money online. There are plenty of blog opportunities for beginners, and you can make money off the simple activity of blogging. The most popular platforms like WordPress and Blogger offer ways to make money fast, even if you are just starting out. You can make money off advertising, affiliate marketing, or even just selling and shipping products.
However, not all blogs are created equal. Building a legitimate audience is the key to success, and that takes some time. Before you can make money off the activity of blogging, you have to become a legitimate source of information. The better your content, the better the chance of gaining a legitimate audience and eventually making money. Try out these top affiliate marketing blogs to see why many experts are doing so well and what you can learn from their strategies.
Sign Up For Google Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is all the rage when it comes to making money online. You sign up with a company like Google Affiliate Marketing, which connects you with merchants that they deem to be relevant to your niche. For example, if you have a blog about fashion, you might be presented with various clothing-related merchants and their products. When someone clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase (or attempts to make a purchase), the affiliate program earns a commission.
This is a simple way to make money online, especially if you are looking for a way to make fast cash. Just ensure that you keep your eyes open for affiliate marketing opportunities and never, ever click on a link that takes you to an unrequested page or site. That is a surefire way to lose money fast.
Start An Online Store
If you want to make money online, the first place to start is always from the comfort of your own home. Why? Because you can run a completely free trial period to see how the platform works for you. There are plenty of platforms out there that allow you to launch your own online store within minutes. Shopify, while not the cheapest option, is one of the most comprehensive tools available when it comes to creating your own e-commerce store. You can use their platform to create your online store, set up sales, and even track orders and shipments from beginning to end. All you need to do is connect your bank account and prepare to buy the domain for the store (this cost you $2.95 a month).
While you should always keep your eyes open for ways to make money online, it is not necessarily the best option for everyone. If you can find a way to make money offline, why not? Especially if you have a reliable source of income that you can draw from, why not?
Consulting Or Affiliate Marketing
If you are the creative type, you might consider becoming a freelancer and selling your talents to businesses or other individuals who can benefit from your skills. There are plenty of opportunities out there to make money online as a freelance writer or graphic designer. Upwork is one of the biggest freelancing platforms, and they even provide you with a business card so that you can begin to build a portfolio. If you can become an accredited professional in any field, you can use that as a way to make money online. If you have a business degree, you might consider establishing yourself as a business consultant and charging clients for your time. If you can become a well-known expert in your chosen field, you can use your blog to teach others how to become successful in business or life in general.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a form of online marketing that helps websites achieve the best possible rankings in organic search results on major search engines like Google and Bing. As the name suggests, SEO promotes the use of certain techniques that can help websites and blogs flourish in the search engines’ eyes. Some of the more popular techniques that can help with SEO include link building, content curation, and social media engagement. You can put these techniques to use for free. However, for truly remarkable results, you will have to purchase a keyword tool like Long Tail Pro (which is a free tool from Google).
SEO is a form of marketing that does not require you to be out there ‘selling’ anything. You simply have to establish yourself as an authoritative source on the web for your chosen topic. Once you have done that, the rest is up to the search engines and their algorithms. The more you put in, the more you will get back. For beginners, try these five steps to SEO that explain the whole process in detail. Once you have followed these steps, you will be able to start enjoying the benefits of SEO in no time.
PPC (Pay Per Click)
Paid per click (PPC) marketing is very similar to SEO in that you are trying to gain a piece of the pie without having to invest too much money upfront. However, with PPC, you are ‘paying’ for each click on your ads. To put it simply, when someone clicks on an ad, the website owner pays the advertiser a commission.
PPC is a way to quickly generate a revenue stream without having to maintain a large social media following. Many bloggers and content creators have made a living off of PPC ads, and it is a simple way to get started. Create a worthwhile ad with a relevant call to action (CTA), and you will see results quickly.
Ads
Speaking of clicks, let’s discuss ads for a moment. Advertisements, commonly referred to as ads, can be a useful tool for website owners and marketers. When you run a Google Adwords campaign, you will be presented with various advertisements from different companies. There will always be an option to ‘skip’ the ad, but the point is that you have the opportunity to choose where you would like to focus your attention. Ads can also be a useful tool for attracting new readers to your blog or website. If you are running an e-commerce store, ads are an easy way to draw in potential customers.
Tracking And Measuring Results
If you are looking to truly make money online, you will need to take the time to track your results and see how exactly what you are doing is paying off. Without this, it is very hard to establish a clear link between your efforts and the money that you are making. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to track your results easily. You will simply have to decide which method is the most suitable for you.
Blogs
Blogs are a fantastic tool for tracking your results and making a clear link between your efforts and the money that you are making. The simplest way to track your results is to simply keep track of your income and expenses. This is what many digital nomads do. They will track their income (which includes money from affiliate marketing, selling and shipping products, online shopping, and freelancing) and their expenses (such as web hosting, domain name registrations, and tools such as Long Tail Pro).
From there, you can simply subtract the former from the latter to see how much money you have actually made. This is a quick and easy way to track your results, but it is not the only way. If you want to get more elaborate, you can use a tool like Xero to track your income and expenses or simply take a look at your bank account.