How To Make Money Online
There so many ways to make money online
When it comes to making money online, the number of possibilities is almost overwhelming. There are so many ways, I really can’t possibly fit a good synopsis of them all in one measly blog post. I will explain how I do it, and how some other people do it, but I promise you that I will miss many of them, as there are online businesses that I haven’t even thought of out there, probably making a lot more money than me. I will also explain a few things that are common to all of them
Websites
We will start with the standard stuff and get more exotic as we go along. If you have a business of any sort, you will probably need a website. A website that explains what you do, where you do it, and the value you offer is almost a no-brainer these days. A website, where people can learn about you and contact you to inquire about your product or service, is not an optional “Nice to have” luxury anymore. You need to be online and you need to do it now. The Yellow Pages have been obsolete for a while now.
OK, now that we have arrived in the twenty first century, let’s get creative.
Books
I write books. They are about personal finance and investing. My first book, BYOB, is a very popular book as it introduces an investing strategy that I have not come across before, and is very effective. I had a great idea one day, I tried it in the real world and it worked. I was so excited I started to tell friends and family about it. They were all so impressed by it they started bringing their friends and family over to hear me talk about it. I was so overwhelmed by people wanting to hear about my idea, I decided to write a book explaining my strategy. You might have something that you should share with the world, and a book is a great platform to do it. Why not make a little money from sharing your experience?
You can self publish it via many online retailers like:
Online Courses
Of course, not everyone enjoys reading books. So I developed an online course that explains my entire investing strategy step by step with videos, animations, and diagrams. This format appeals to some people more than others and it is available here.
If you really need to explain things in detail and like to teach, you can create an online course via websites like:
All of these websites have excellent tutorials how to create and publish content. Share your gifts with the world! People would like to know.
Drop Shipping
My friend Matt Kearns (Who is a Chef - www.freshmenuplanner.com) and I have a company called Fresh Menu Kitchen. We sell cool kitchen gadgets on Amazon. We research and select gadgets that we feel reflect our standards for quality and usefulness. We then have them custom branded and manufactured by factories that specialise in that type of product. We ship them to Amazon and create listings on both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.
When people order our products, Amazon takes care of the fulfilment from end to end. They pick the products and ship them to the customer. They take care of the billing and any customer service related issues like returns etc. This is all dome behind the scenes! We love it. You can sell just about anything on Amazon and they make it easy and convenient for both the buyers and the sellers.
If you like drop shipping, there are many ways to do. Amazon is just one. If you have a brand that people recognise or a really extensive customer base, you can start your own e-commerce website. Many platforms like Shopify make it easy to do.
There are also sites that let you do custom printed T-shirts and things that you can utilise. People come to your website and design their own T-Shirts or use one of your designs and order the items. Coffee mugs, pillows, and all kinds of print-on-demand items are available. The sites will print the items and ship it to your customers without you having to touch anything. Super easy and cool.
Affiliate Marketing
If you have a website or social medal platform that attracts a lot of attention and/or you have a boatload of followers you have an opportunity to make money by recommending other peoples products and services. You just put a link on your website or social media page that directs people to a specific product and you get a small commission if they purchase the item. It is simple and uses your popularity to promote good products that you believe in. The website that you direct them to pays the commission out of their profits as they are grateful for the traffic, and the price is the same for the customer. It is a win/win for everyone.
I often recommend products (usually books) and create a clickable link in my blogs etc. that go to another website. These are affiliate links. I have set up affiliate accounts on amazon.com, amazon.ca, apple.com, and kobo.com. I make it a point to only recommend products that I believe in and am passionate about, but you are free to make that choice for yourself. There are hundreds of online vendors that have affiliate programs.
Here are the big boys:
YouTube
This platform is crazy. If you like to make videos, posting them on YouTube can make you a lot of money. The model is simple. The more people who watch your video, the more money you make. This comes from running advertisements in your videos and YouTube will choose which advertisements work best with the type of content that is contained in your videos. There are people making millions from their YouTube channels. Some “YouTubers” have big production budgets and film crews while others just use smart phones or screen shares. If you can make something that people will watch, you are good to go.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of e-Commerce
The Good - Having an online presence is great. It allows you the opportunity to provide value to the world and share your unique gifts with as many people as possible. You can scale your business to almost any size as you are not limited to a brick and mortar location. You can set up your business so that is almost runs itself. You create content via a blog, a website, a video etc. and it becomes “evergreen” in that it is there perpetually and can earn you income forever, while you create more. This is called leverage. Earning money while you sleep is not only possible, but ongoing.
The Bad - The biggest hurdle to all of this is the double-edged sword of “ease of use”. It is so easy to do all of these things that it has created a tidal wave of internet content creators. There are literally BILLIONS of websites, blogs and YouTube videos. The main challenge is finding a way to stand out amongst the billions of other sites doing the same thing as you. There are whole industries dedicated to online marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to help people find a way to be found online. I suggest you learn as much as you can about these things if you are going to pursue an online business. Focus on putting out quality content and providing value. This will be your first priority as a content creator. Once you have given your best, then worry about getting seen.
The Ugly - Being online has its dark side. It brings out the nasty people. There are people in the world who like nothing better than to rip to to shreds for your efforts. You will be called names, accused of lying, cheating and stealing, laughed at, and ridiculed. The cloak of anonymity the the internet provides makes it easy to be mean, and some people can’t hep themselves. Do not put yourself out there online unless you are willing to grow a thick skin.
Possibilities
There are opportunities to make money online that I have not mentioned, either because I don’t know about them or I don’t know enough about them to explain. I hope you can see that there are paths to success available if you are willing to explore them.
My main objective on this website is to offer you ideas about how to become financially free and to think about money in new ways. I teach dividend investing, and I evangelise passive income as the holy grail of wealth building. I personally earn money from dividends, books, courses, affiliate marketing, selling kitchen gadgets, consulting, investing and a full-time job. I learned about the concept of “multiple streams of income” many years ago and I believe in it deeply. As the world changes and becomes more “interesting” relying on ONE source of income to support you and your loved ones is less appealing as it once was.
I encourage you to find something you can be passionate about enough to do well and explore that opportunity. You never know how many people you can help, and how it might reward you for doing so.
Best of luck to you all.