Advice for Newbies: Have a read!

Well, if I'm honest I'm getting pretty fed up with all the threads with the topic as 'what is a good way to make money online', and 'can I make money online', so I thought I'd make a thread answering these questions.

Before I start, can I just say that I don't know everything about making money online, and I'm not trying to sound arrogant, just help people. If you have any things to add to the thread, please feel free to post!



OK, so, who can make money online?
Anyone can, that's the great thing about it! I started when I was 14 and did just fine, and I bet that my 78 year old grandmother could also make money online. It's one of those great things that everyone can do, because it's got so many different parts that you can get into.

How can I make money online?
Well, there are loads of different ways. I'm only going to list a few, but I'm sure as this thread gets popular, more and more people will add to it and give you more advice. You can set up websites, freelance... anything!

Freelancing
Freelancing is a great way to make money online, and all you need is a talent. Basically, you do a service, whether it be content writing, coding, designing, link submission (the list goes on and on...) for someone, and they pay you for it. If you go down this route, then it's probably best to set up a Paypal account so that the buyer can easily deposit money into your account. You can get started straight away, you don't need anything, just look for jobs in the BST section!

Make A Website
This route is more popular, and involves making a website and putting adverts on it. The website could be about anything: could be a blog or information site, could be a social networking site, anything... How do you make money with websites? Simple. You target keywords and rank highly in Google and other search engines for those keywords.

Once you've started getting traffic (visitors), you can really start to earn some money. You can either put on a PPC program such as Adsense, or you can go into Affiliate Marketing, where you sell a product for someone else, and, every time you make a sale, you get a percentage of the money.



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That's all I've got time to write at the moment. I'll add some more later, and I hope some other people will help out by adding more advice!

 

To cut it short, there are lots of ways to earn online but if you're serious about building a career around it and not just looking to get quick income, then you need to accept the fact that there's a hard road to go from startup to a successful story.

You'll see many asking the same question over and over but be sure that few of them are actually being able to use the advice they are given.

 

Pretty basic information, but needed information for beginners. Good job! +rep added

 

Yeah, it is basic information, but every day I see another post which is pretty much asking for the above answers. Things like 'How can I make money online?' and 'Can I make money online?' keep coming up, so I figured if they were all in one place then people could just read the thread rather than making a new post

 

You have missed this,lemme add this
Forex trading
Everyone can do it.And the starting capital is no need million.Only a couple thousand will do.There are many advantage of it such as flexible working time,no need pay for domain name and hosting,no need to wake up early in the morning,no need go to office etc.And the profit is better than other kind of job.

 

Mentos, thanks for contributing. Could you give some more info on how to get started?

 

yeah nice list.

does selling sig links or answering surveys belong to freelancing for you? I know most survey sites are scam but you can make a litte money with them

 

There are at least 100 ways to make money online. Just select the one you love doing and the money will come...

 

Good advice for newbies great stuff man

 

Mentos, I have to differ from your statement. Things like this confuse people specially newbies or starters. Maybe you don't need them all, maybe you won't do/need them later, but there's a wrong idea of making money online. I explain:
-"no need for a domain"
To start, no you don't need it, but if you are up to a real good domain idea for your project and it is available, you should go ahead and invest those 10 bucks. Tomorrow might not be available. Also, as you grow (if you do), you will need it to make your business a reputable and stable one. Would people trust you if they see your site is on mybusiness.freehosting4all.com ? Probably not. If you don't even have for a domain, they won't give you the money... chances are, you will take it and run away.

-"no need to pay for hosting"
Same theory for a domain. It's known that for online business is not the same investment than for a brick and mortar one. But please! think about hosting as the rent for your business, and take it as seriously as an offline one. That means: "location, location, location".... How reliable is your website? Is it there every time I go there? Does it loads fast? Is it up to date? Is your site appealing? Does it looks professional (including the domain).... etc.

-"no need to wake up early in the morning" / "flexible hours"
Well, not exactly. First you are working your butt off to "build it". That means, design, code, advertise, etc. I've known people (including myself) working 18 hours a day fighting with a design, code or a script... or just making research to pull a good idea or concept.

After that, when you start to have success, then you are working for your customers, but at that time you can't afford others to work for you, so you have to do it all alone. And you can't "relaaaaax" because this customer is paying you $1000 for this job and after that he has another one and some friends to refer.

-"no need to go to the office"
True! But that doesn't mean you won't have an office. If you are serious you have to have a little "home/office" designed to "work". That means also:
-equipment that you have to buy
-software that you have to buy
-do proper accounting & taxes (if you are serious about your venture)

Also, since is your "work corner" consider to get away from it at least once a week. Maybe a Saturday or a Sunday, or have day Friday and half Saturday, is your choice. Yes, turn it on in case you have an important email but if it's not important, can wait until next business day.

The thing here is..... Don't think it's very easy and that the money will come easily. Takes a LOT OF WORK, and some money investment.

 

Pretty nice Info, Thank you guys

 

Thanks for that info KiteGuy and the others. I think many newbies have figured out that they can make SOME money online but the question is whether they can make ENOUGH money online? Ok, I accept that the idea of enough money differs from country to country given local economic issues and currency exchange rates. But can a person earn at leat $3,000 a month on a fairly consistent basis without having to work like 18 hours a day in front of their screens?

 

IDEASGirl is the first person that I have read who tells it like it is. If you want to set something up you have to work at it! Yes it will mean 18 hour days, self motivation etc. people like kiteguy give ambiguous info and make it seem simple but its the gap that all these people leave out that newbies get trapped on. You need to know what you are doing and to get their it takes experience and this takes time.

 

Definately. It'll take a lot of effort at first to set up your projects, and it would be a full time job, but once you get going and make a steady income stream, you could definately make that: very achievable target.

 

You get out what you put in.

Start small and keep it smple. You might have to work hard for a bit, but it will be worth it in the end.

I started freelancing and I wouldln't change a thing. I have made a bunch of good contacts through this. Business owners and professionals. Establish a network of like minded people, work together and profit off each other's combined efforts.

Freelancing can be considered "grunt work" but even then you are still building a business. To stick with the building analogy, just remember, it might be hard, tedious, boring work but your laying the foundations for a successful business in the future with a residual income.

Let me say this though:
Surveys, getting paid to click on ads nd browse crappy websites is NOT going to make you money. Maybe a few cents, but thats not how successful people are making money. Successful people are building businesses and a reputation in a particular market or niche.
Find what makes you good money, find what you are good at it and then refine what you do, go above and beyond the call of duty, over-deliver and you will earn yourself an excellent reputation (something you can't buy). Some of the biggest millionaires in the World are in such a position because they got good at doing just ONE thing.

You don't always have to stick at one thing though, you can invest in other things too. In fact, this is an important piece of the puzzle as well. invest your profits wisely.
- Make sure yo have a profit
- Save some in the bank for a rainy day
- Diversify your business with a sensible investment or re-invest into your current business
- Use the remainder to treat yourself or loved ones.

Be disciplined. As soon as the first payment falls into your paypal, don't go blow it all on crap you don't need or alcohol etc. Enjoy it by all means, but don't sacrifice your business for material irrelevant things that you won't want after a year.

Thats all the advice I've got time for right now. Hope it helped someone out there.

 

those are really good suggestions...
one more things... to keep you going, have a goal or a target.. like you do it to gain the money for a new car... or something that can u interested in the long hard road ahead

 

Yeah I agree with mpstrategies.

Have a tangible or clear physical goal to work towards. And when you reach it, reward yourself.

One of mine is to have enough money for my birthday to take all my friends and family on a holiday.

Thats just one example.

Good luck in all your efforts.

 

The all idea behind making money online is building a career around it just like Clive said and not just quick cash that will last 1-2 months, the real challenge IMHO is to build a successful business and reputation around it, not many have succeeded by choosing this path and not because they don't have the skills or knowledge but also there is no serious investment. If you will look into any real successful website that has a reputation you will know that there is also an Investment firm supporting that company, i know that Digg and FeedBurner has such Capital companies supporting them and that's why they are successful.

 

Nice Post, Rep given

IMHO, no matter how you look at it doing web/online business involves hard work, effort, some risks like any offline business.
The main difference with offline business is more flexibility and freedom

 

Hmm...sounds familiar. Very true. Making peanuts and small pocket change is easy. Making at least $3K per mth is different story