Couldn't find out anywhere else this could be posted, so here goes. I am quite young, I do not have access to a credit card and my mum won't spill money on the net, only for her eBay stuff and what not and I can't get access to my bank account. I am really struggling to make money online, I have tried making graphics for money, posting for money, failed as I was getting about ten pence per post. I possibly need £30 pounds in my PP account for domains and hosting and if I generate enough revenue from my forum another £40 can go towards a custom theme, but what are great ways to make money online? It never works for me, please share your secrets?
Over the past week I have thought and worked hard to make money and failed. My mum won't toss a penny over because she thinks I am wasting my time, which I could prove her wrong.
If you wouldn't want to spend any money on hosting, try wordpress or blogger. Put some useful content, throw some ads, do some SEO research, be active in creating backlinks, try every possible way to gain traffic (but not spamming the board ). Within few months, after the page rank update, of course you will have to build lots of backlink and get a page rank first, you can try selling links or articles if you are good in writing one.
It's going to take a lot longer than a week to start making money online. You need to look at the people who you know online -- at a forum, perhaps -- and see what they need that you can provide. Here is a very inspirational story about how a 17-year-old did just that: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.html
If you are good with graphics then go with it provide your services. I used to be teenager like you (correct me if you aren't teenager) with no access to money. Going with free blogs. Figuring out everyday to make money. I do give up sometimes but always come back. I was trying to make money with my dial up connection (you know how fast it is). It took me time but it did work and yeah there was no support to me too. So don't give up and remember there isn't some magic button for you to press. For now go with free blogging services like: blogger, wordpress. There are also lot of of free hosting services on the internet. And .com will cost you around 9$ but you can get .info for around 2$. Pm me if you need any help. I may be able to hook up you with something.
1) find a niche, let's say gardening or organic foods (just examples, get yourself niche within a niche) 2) go to google/wiki etc read up on the topic and learn in detail 3) open a free blog with www.wordpress.com or blogger 4) make a goal of writing 1 FULL article per day in the niche 5) after 30 days where the site has content, apply for a google adsense account -30 days so you have a quality site to show 6) increase your articles to 2 per day in theory, you can do 3 articles per day during the week and 6-7/day during weekends - not easy but it can be done
You can make money on the internet and you can win the lottery. I have found from years of exploration that the internet is only a fairly sophisticated tool that a savvy marketer uses to make money. It is not an end all in itself. My advice is to learn as much as you can and once you master the basics find a real live, saleable product that people need or want and then you can make money. I found a guy that carefully and expertly explains the process better than anyone I have ever seen. Now it does cost a little each month but it is one of the few things I can't wait to pay each month. If it is OK with the forum management check this out. I guarantee it will give you all you need to know about internet marketing in an easy to follow, step by step method so that you can get a great start. https://imi.infusionsoft.com/go/npc/a14913
I agree with all the posts so far, and I especially like teckinik's advice. Think about what you are good at - write it down; do you see where what you are good at doing can be useful to others - is there a need for your type of skills and abilities? If so, then think of ways that you can get people to hire you to provide this service to them - write it down. Set a goal - write it down. Think also of the actions necessary to reach the goal - write them down. Now do them! (EatMyGoal, think "baby steps.") You may need to provide your services offline at first - let people know you're in business - that you can help them (pass out flyers, spread the word among your family members, your friends, your neighborhood, etc.). Build up your funds - develop a budget - then come back to pursue your online goals. Perhaps you'll find that your offline business is a good fit for the web and can make money that way too! EatMyGoal, there's more than one way to to do what you want to do, but slow it down. You're going to need to be extremely patient, determined and committed to do whatever it is you desire to accomplish in life.
if you have a quality website. buying and selling links can also be able to get enough money. good luck.
I think some of the biggest mistakes people make when attempting to start an online business, include failing to consider their own skills/interests and what they can offer their target market. Instead of pouring over a bazillion niches, look instead at what you're already passionate about. Of the hundreds of home business owners I've worked with, the most successful ones are those who took something they were passionate in -- in some cases, a hobby -- and found a way to provide a product or service to others. Which brings me to the second point. Once you figure out what you are interested in, you need to find other people who are interested in the same thing. Then figure out what product or service or information you can offer them. For example, if you sew car upholstery, you might get to know other people in your industry and discover that they need information on how to use the internet to grow their businesses. Or you might discover that they need a particular product. You can also look at automotive upholstery consumers and see what they need. For myself, back in 2001, I knew that I loved writing, that I had experience designing newspaper layouts on the computer and that I was interested in learning HTML. I was also part of an online community that included other people starting online businesses. It wasn't long before they discovered I could build ecommerce websites. And that's when the light bulb went on for me: "Hey! I can earn money doing this!" Again, the most successful business people that I've worked with have a similar story, whether they ultimately sold services, physical or digital products or recommended others products via a blog or mailing list.
This hasnt been mentioned yet, but if you are old enough to know what you appear to know I am going to assume you are old enough to get a real world job somewhere. I think if you have a better chance working a real world job for a season and taking that money and using it as your intial investment.
There is a technique to making money online. A lot of people simply believe that 'luck' will be the only factor in their business. '...I hope someone buys...' Do you really believe you can run a business like that? What is needed for this business is hard work and solid understanding. You will make money by building a list interested in a certain niche. You will first spend some time making a strong relationship with this list, before you introduce them to products you know they will like. Most website owners are too desperate to make money immediately. They do not understand the importance of the the relationship with their visitor. Imagine you went to a car showroom or any other store and the sales executive comes immediately to your face and screams 'buy, buy, buy!. You would leave, and you should! The same is the case with a web business. This is a store, but only only online. Why should it be different to any other OFFLINE store? Offer a valuable gift to your visitors so that they have a reason to join your list! Communicate with them! Yes it does take more work but when you introduce a related product to sell, they will be a lot more responsive!
All good advice so far. I especially like the story of the young girl by Michelle Waters. If you have no money, as everyone here has said, start on a free blog and work from there. Or, here's an alternative if you really want to start as you mean to go on that'll keep your mum (and you) happy. Get a part time job and save the money to get your hosting, name etc (can probably all be done for around $100). Whatever you do online is going to take time to generate income, so keep the part time job to cover expenses and give yourself some quality of life until it does (or doesn't). And all the while remember: 1. It's not easy and requires hard work 2. Be original 3. There is a myriad of compensation, some of whom if you've got number 2 right will copy you so be ready for it 4. It takes time, so you have to stick at it 5. Don't buy into any 'get rich quick', MLM, pyramid, easy ways to do it information, etc... Buy nothing other than your services - all this miracle information people sell is freely available if you dig around - where do you think they got it from! Here's another story for you - my son, 16 set up a website a couple of years ago (he was in the fortunate position that I had space he could use and bought him the domain). At the time, he was playing an online game that he noticed didn't have any serious fan sites, so he set one up (I'm a web designer and can hand on heart say the site looked pretty good). Once done he contacted the owners of the game who liked his site, they gave him links which provided a good level of instant traffic and he was making a small income from Adsense from it. The Adsense click through rates where high given the targeting of age and topic. He did a geart job, which had huge potential. But, here's where he went wrong. Firstly he lost interest, money not enough I guess. And secondly, he didn't see the potential in what he had (he could have grown it significantly from the base he had, and he could also have duplicated the formula) So, if you do get something up and running, stick at it, learn, and don't buy any advice as you can get all that from the Internet and forums like this.
Thats what most moms think! be determined on what you love and dont lose hope! Even my mom never believed me (5yrs ago) on making money online but i was so so determined. I started my site less than $50 and now i own many many sites and now i have earned a plenty online! i never spent a penny on SEO or custom design and everything i learnt and did it myself. i really think that without credit card or paypal money it is very difficult to establish yourself in business online. if you are buying custom themes, consider themeforest.net and they do accept moneybookers aswell.
The best way is to start creating a personal blog using free hosts about whatever you are most passionate about. You can also try to be a content writer for others (sometimes you might need to offer your services for free so you can get contacts). If you are good, eventually customers will be loyal and will be willing to pay you. If you are really into domain buy and sell and you want to move fast, I suggest you get a part time job (not online) to save money and then invest that money here. Good luck and persevere, it will take more than a few weeks/months to earn well online.
As has been said several times already in this thread - get a part time job, save until you're 18 (or whatever the age of majority is in your country) and then you'll have plenty of cash to work with. In the meantime, a free blog is a good start - but you might as well take the time to learn as much as you can about internet marketing before you put money into it.