As always and without fail, every January and February I get asked the same question. Can you really make money on the Internet? And my answer is always the same... YES!
Many people like the idea of working from home and earning a living from their laptops. The very thought of not having to commute to and from a place of work, being their own boss and being able to work at a desk, or even a kitchen table, wearing nothing more than a dressing gown has much appeal.
However, after considering the inevitable questions like… How do I get started? What will I sell? And, how will I get paid? Many people simply give up the idea. So, is it really possible for anyone to set up their own business working from home? Well, in a word… yes.
Buy It, Sell It, Love It
There are a number of proven ways to earn money on the Internet, including eBay, affiliate programs and developing and selling your own product. So, let’s look at these in a little more detail.
It’s completely free to set up an eBay account and you can sell just about anything, from the contents of your attic to cars and even multi-million dollar yachts. The main advantages of selling on eBay are you can reach a worldwide audience and you won’t have to pay a single penny in advertising costs. Also, you don’t need a website and you get paid for your items upfront.
And it’s not only work-at-home mums, students and OAPs who can make money with eBay. It’s suitable for just about anyone of any age and experience. Even small established companies can see the benefits of having an eBay account, as a means for offloading surplus stock.
It’s true that many eBay sellers just dabble in a few household wares and collectibles, which unfortunately has helped to create the image that eBay is not a serious business option. However, whilst many people have managed to create a real part-time business on eBay, a few savvy traders have gone on to make millions.
The key to making eBay work and generate enough money to be able to earn a full-time income is to source a variety of dropshippers. These are wholesalers who can not only provide you with an endless supply of goods to sell, but will pack and post the items direct to your customers.
If all you ever had to do to make a full-time income from home was to create a few eye-catching listings and then pay your supplier and eBay fees, wouldn’t that be worth checking out?
Affiliate Programs
Setting up an affiliate business is probably one of the easiest and potentially the most profitable of all work-at-home options. You don’t need any products of your own and you don’t need a website, although you might have to invest some money in advertising.
As an affiliate you simply promote other people’s products and you are then paid a commission for each sale. Commission payments can be as high as 75% in some cases and there are many US based affiliates who have managed to create a six-figure income from simply doing this.
Affiliate programs work well for both the product owner and the affiliate. And the reason why is because the Internet is vast, which can make it difficult and costly for the product owner to reach enough people in order to make sufficient volume of sales. So it’s better to recruit an army of other people to sell the product for you and pay them well for doing it.
Many affiliates promote these products either using Google’s pay-per-click advertising or by placing ads in ezines, which are the Internet’s equivalent of a printed magazine.
The most successful affiliates have built large databases of prospects by offering them free products, usually ebooks, in return for their names and emails. Any seasoned Internet marketer will tell you that “the money is in the list”.
You can sign up as an affiliate for free at Clickbank.com, PayDotCom.com and Click2Sell.eu. Many of the products in these programs offer commission payments of between 50% and 75%. Other affiliate programs worth considering are, Commission Junction and Affiliate Future.
Probably the most important thing to study and learn about promoting any kind of product on the Internet is marketing. And there are numerous ways in which products can be successfully marketed including pay-per-click, video marketing using YouTube, social network marketing with Facebook and Twitter, article marketing and email marketing to name a few.
Anyone who can master the highly successful tried and tested techniques and strategies of Internet marketing, can pretty much write their own pay cheque.
Creating Your Own Product
Creating your own product to sell on the Internet is not as difficult as you might think. Many products that sell very well online are information products, especially the “How To” guides and video tutorials, both of which can be created on your own computer.
Many people have some special knowledge or skill that others would be willing to pay for, but if you think that you might not have any, then you’ll probably know someone who does. Perhaps a relative, a neighbour a friend or work colleague could help you with this.
People all over the world want to know “How To” do things better, faster and cheaper. You might know “How To” cook fish a certain way, or you might know how to grow certain vegetables. You might know “How To” repair computers or “How To” learn to play the guitar quicker. The list is endless.
Basically, whatever you can think of, there will be a market for it, a little niche waiting to be exploited. All you have to do is research your subject matter, put all the facts together and write a book about it. If you’re not keen on writing then you can get someone else to do this for you.
Your book should be at least 30 pages long and produced using a word processor. This document can then easily be converted into an ebook, better known as a portable document file (PDF), which can then be downloaded from a website or blog.
A blog, such as Wordpress or Blogger is free to set up and so is a payment processing account like PayPal or Nochex. So you can host your product on a free blog and use a payment processor to be able to accept debit and credit card payments over the Internet.
Video tutorials are fast becoming very popular and do sell very well. If you are able to “show” people how to do something rather than “tell” them, then you could be onto a winner in terms of sales volume.
Most laptops have built-in cameras and come with recording software, and now camcorders are relatively cheap to buy too. Some good examples of video tutorials are dog training, tree pruning, building, plumbing and electrical installations.
If you know a local tradesman, you could agree a 50-50 split on profits from sales in return for filming them at work.
Providing A Service
Another work-at-home option, and one that does involve actually working, is to provide a service such as writing or web design. Website owners are always looking for new content and articles for their sites, which helps in their search engine rankings. Also, catalogue companies need product description writers and many companies that produce products need people to write the user manuals.
Anyone with web design or graphic design skills could also ply their trade on the Internet, along with software developers and technical support professionals. To get an idea of what services people are offering and looking for visit elance.com, getafreelancer.com and rentacoder.com.
Anyone with artistic and creative skills can make a living on the Internet by either bidding for work or by advertising their services on a website. Some legal services also do well on the Internet along with accountancy, secretarial and virtual receptionist services.
That time tested reference to “supply and demand” is very much in evidence on the Internet and you just might happen to have a skill that you can readily transfer or use to your best advantage.
If you would like a change of lifestyle, earn an extra income or even generate a six-figure income from your own business, then working from home and running a home-based business is certainly worth considering.
Otherwise the rest of your working life could consist of early morning starts, traffic jams, clock watching, mundane tasks, long hours and the boss breathing down your neck. It’s your choice.
Here's a good place to start... License2Profit
Okay till next time.
Bill
Knight Writer
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