How do I Make Money Online? What works? What does not work?
So you’d like to make an income online. Awesome. Who wouldn’t, right? One of the first things I’d tell any new webmaster – or anyone looking to get into earning an income online – you need to be aware of what works, and what does not. The way I look at this is: will it draw a residual income for you? What does that mean? Let’s talk about that before we get into things much deeper:
RESIDUAL INCOME:
– Doing the work once, small updates after that here and there. Earning an income every single month from a succesful website.
– Doing the hard work up front; sometimes working for months – a little bit here and there – but then once the site takes off, you can mostly kick back and watch it earn the income you’re after.
– Not having to do work every single day if you don’t want to.
NON-RESIDUAL INCOME:
– The old “get paid for your time” philosophy, which does not differ much from a day job.
– Things like online surveys that pay you as long as you sit in front of the computer and complete the online survey.
– Any kind of program that pays you for time you put in, as long as you’re spending the time at the computer putting time in, essentially.
For the most part, we won’t talk about Crypto currencies here either – as they’re not a viable source of income at this time. I’m sure we’d have lots of people argue this, but what I talk about here on this website is tried and true methods to earn an income via building useful, resourceful websites that people will visit because they are helpful. Crypto currencies are volatile methods of earning money (just like an app like Robin Hood) which don’t have any tried and true processes.
Now, with that being said, let’s talk about building your first website.
Why should I build a website?
So, before you leave my website thinking – but I can’t build a website, I don’t know anything about that – that’s okay. You don’t need to know programming, HTML, or anything about computers or the Internet, really. All you really need to ask yourself is the following:
– What is it that I am passionate about?
– Do I have the ability to write about what I’m passionate about – continually?
If there is something you’re passionate about, and you can write about it – that’s generally all it takes. You could write a website about fixing guitars. You could write a website about fixing motorcycles. You could write a website about gardening. We’re going to talk about how to laser focus that passion of yours – but the most important thing is, is there something you’re passionate about, or knowledge about about – or both – and can you spend some time writing about that passion, until the time your website becomes successful.
If you answered yes to these two questions, then you’re on your way.
Passion, Discipline and Focused Content are the most important things to any niche website – not Programming, HTML, or Design
You don’t need to know HTML to build a website. You don’t need programming knowledge, you don’t need to know CSS. You don’t need to know how to write code in ASP, PHP or any of those. All you need is your wits and your wisdom. And passion. When I talk about passion, I am talking about whatever you’re passionate about – that you can write about. It needs to be a specific subject. You need to write about something that you can see yourself being able to write about for a very long time. Ask yourself – Can I write about this a few times a week, every week, for the next 5-10 years? If the subject is something that you know a lot about, and you’ve been passionate about that subject all your life, then you’re off to the races.
Avoid fads; avoid writing about things that are here today, gone tomorrow. E.G bitcoin is a fad. Also, there are so many different cryptocurrencies hitting the market like Helium,
Let’s outline what may work and what may not work as a subject. If you want to write a website about basketball, you’re going to be competing with a billion other websites out there that talk about basketball. Now, if you can get a little bit more specific – maybe talk specifically about a certain basketball team, or certain players – you might get somewhere. Yes, it’s important to have passion, but you also need to hone in on your target market. Try to make keyword phrases as deep as possible. For example:
- Basketball players – too competitive, won’t get anywhere
- Basketball players that played for the Chicago Bulls – better
- Basketball players that played for the Chicago Bulls from 1991-1995 – even better
- Basketball players that played for the Chicago Bulls from 1991-1995 and won the championship – even better
As you start to get more focused with your content, so too will the visitors you attract to your website. With the 1991-1995 keyword, you know that people hitting that page specifically are looking for something very specific. The more specificity you can provide, the more targetted your keyword searches will be; the less competition you will have. Each keyword added to the phrase makes the target smaller and smaller, eliminating competition and giving you a fighting chance of being able to obtain a top 10 ranking for laser-targeted keyword phrases.
Research your niche before building your first website
So, what just is a niche, anyways? You’re going to hear it a lot online. A niche is basically the area in which you build your website – the market segment.
Niche means you’re attempting to service something on your website, that you feel isn’t done well online. To some extent, your niche is where you focus your efforts. So, you don’t want to build a “general” website that tries to tackle a bunch of different subjects or topic.
For example, if your website is about weight loss- I’d suggest focus that down a bit, try to make it more laser focused – e.g a specific part or area of weight loss. That would be your niche, though. You wouldn’t build a website about weight loss, as well as how to build your body e.g body building. You want to focus your website as much as possible, while at the same time building your website centered around your passion and your knowledge. If you don’t have ANY knowledge or passion about weight loss, then DON’T BUILD IT! This is where many newbie webmasters make mistakes. They jump onto the fad bandwagon, writing websites about a new movie they like, or some new fad like online trading via mobile app. The challenge is not to get swept away in these fads – think long term. Write your website about things that matter to you – the rest will come easy, like earning an income.
Resources and Online Money Making Tutorials
One of the best places I can recommend to any new webmaster to get started, is Webmaster World. There’s a whole world out there as it relates to Search Engine Optimization, and that world is changing rapidly. Google constantly releases new updates. If you can learn a few things about SEO, how to rank your website, and manage to find ways to stay on top of the ever-changing landscape, you can learn to earn a good income online. There’s a formula to how Google ranks websites. While many industries are topped with leaders like Home Depot and Amazon, who can be difficult to compete with, finding a niche where you can rank in the top ten is still possible.
With each passing year, millions of new .com domains are purchased. So the statement “there’s no time like now” really rings true in this case. You might do well for a year or two, and then have to face off against some new competition. Or, depending on your chosen niche, you might be able to maintain a top 10 ranking for a long, long time. It’s all about what niche you get into. Remember, the more keywords you add onto your targeted keyword phrases, e.g 4-5 keywords deep or more, the greater chance you have of obtaining a top slot on Google.