Hi my friends!,

Since my time here on nairaland, I've noticed a lot of people want information on how to make money online. While there are hundreds of ways of making money online, I've found they can all be categorized under 5 different avenues. Each offers its own advantages and disadvantages, and no one way is more profitable or effective than another. You can make just as much money in one area, as you can in another. Because what your success really boils down to is the amount of work and effort you put into your ideas.

There are a lot of people on the Internet who try to convince you that pursuing certain ideas and niches will bring you more riches than others. That's not true. While I do agree that some niches have larger markets (like finance, health and celebrity gist) that doesn't mean people who go into these topics will be more successful than someone who chooses topics like speed-reading, cooking and novel writing.

Online success is all about what YOU bring to the table. It's about how YOU can present your ideas in a way that will encourage more people to listen, subscribe and buy what you are saying. How well YOU can market your skills and talents.

Below are the 6 proven and profitable ways you can make money online. I have experience in each of these, and I've also listed them from the ideas that have allowed me to make the most money, down to the least. As a follow up to this post, I will be sure to include a link for people to sign up for some of my free training, where I will share with you not only how I was able to make money using these options, but also how you can to.

But before we get to that, allow me to present the 6 proven and profitable ways to make money online.

1. Creating and selling your own product or service
Of all the ways to make money online, creating and selling your own products offers the greatest potential for profit. What I mean is that since you own and control the product, you have the leverage to expand its reach as far as you see fit. You can choose to sell to an exclusive clientele or list of people, or you can create something and make it as widely available as products on sites like Amazon or eBay.

The most profitable products are information and digital products, such as ebooks, video training, audio books, software and applications, and online courses. This is because these products usually require very low startup and development expenses, and once the product is complete, can be sold without incurring any additional expense, except for what it may cost to ship and distribute the item, storage fees and update/maintenance costs on your product.

I mostly sell ebooks, info-products and online courses, which make up the bulk of my online income.

Tangible or physical products are more expensive because of manufacturing costs, warehouse and shipping fees, and in some cases, even insurance costs. But just because physical products are more expensive to create and source, doesn't mean they aren't profitable. There are many sellers online who profit from physical goods. It's all about where you source them, how and where you sell them, and how quickly.


4. Coaching, teaching and online tutorials
You could include this as part of the first option, because usually this method requires creating your own product or service. Startup costs are usually very low, and once produced, allow the creator to generate consistent profitable income.

To be honest, coaching is one of the easiest ways to make money online, simply because there is always someone willing to learn some skill or strategy that another can teach. Right now, there is something you know how to do better than others, but in order to make money from those skills, you have to search for and find the people who want to learn what you know.

Some believe you have to be an expert before coaching or teaching online, and this is not true. You just have to be knowledgeable and able to effectively communicate your lessons clearly and definitively. You would be surprised how many so-called "gurus" there are online who are not real experts. There is nothing wrong with being a non-expert, if you are offering a legitimate service to people. The more you can convince people that you know what you're talking about, the more interested followers you will attract. And with more followers comes more income.


3. Websites and blogs
There is a huge misconception about blogging, that is is an effective and highly profitable way of making money. In essence, that is true because of its ability to allow you to generate multiple streams of income from a single site. But blogging, in and of itself is NOT profitable.

You can't make money from simply having a blog. And the money you can make simply by blogging is often very little. A blog is simply a vehicle to generate revenue. Think of a car. Just because you own a car doesn't mean you will make money, but if you decide to use that car as a taxi service, then the likelihood of making money becomes possible.

To profit from blogging you're going to need people who visit the site looking to buy or read what you have. Which means traffic. Which is much harder to build than the blog itself. But once you have people visiting your site regularly you need to offer a way to make money.

Unless you receive thousands of page views per day, you are NOT going to make any money from advertising. Advertisers want exposure, and if your blog generates only a handful of views per month, no one is going to pay you to receive less exposure than they generate on their own.

To maximize your earning potential you need a means of generating income through your blog such as affiliate marketing, freelancing, selling your products and services or offering some form of online learning or training. On top of this, you'll need to create content and products around a specific topic or niche. This will allow you to attract readers and buyers who specifically want what you have. You will also need to build trust and credibility, and you do that by providing more detailed, accurate and informative content on your topic.


4. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online, but it requires a person to have access to a large audience and/or a source of income to finance an aggressive marketing strategy.

I've seen a lot of articles on the Internet about getting started with Clickbank and other affiliate commission sites, but the one thing these articles and sites always seems to leave out, is HOW to go about doing it. Signing up for Clickbank and posting links on Facebook is NOT how you're going to make money. You may earn a few sales, but you won't earn consistent income. Sorry, but it's the truth.

The people who make the most money with affiliate marketing are great at marketing in general. They know how to promote and present an offer that not only interests potential customers, but also makes them want to buy. Many people who get into affiliate marketing fail, not because it's hard (evn thought it is hard) but because they have no idea how to successfully market their affiliate products.

Many also fail because they don't encourage repeat business. When you promote an offer online, and someone buys, there is very little to no chance that they are going to buy that product from you again. How many times have you gone to the store and bought the same shirt, book or digital device? Most affiliate products are not "consumable goods" meaning, they are not products people need to repurchase over and over. So once the sale is made, the custom is gone, and you will have to work even harder to find another customer. This can be expensive and some marketers just can't afford to do it.

Affiliate marketing is very profitable, but it's also time consuming and difficult for beginning marketers. Just be aware of that before getting yourself involved.

5. Freelancing
Freelancing is a profitable way to make money online, but it's also very restrictive. Your income is tied to your working hours, which means that if you're only available for 10 hours a day, you can only earn an income within those 10 hours. However, if you possess the skills and know-how to produce quality work for other people and businesses -- like writing and editing, web design, programming, or videography and photography, you can promote your services online to attract potential clients.

Most freelancers start with sites like Odesk, Freelance.com and Elance, but the ones who generate the most revenue are those who have successfully positioned themselves as a unique brand, and/or who have built a business from their work and hiring other freelancers work for them.

Branding also allows you to attract more high-paying clients. The more unique and professional you are, the greater your chances are to earn an income with freelancing.

6. Domain swapping and flipping
Some people compare domain flipping with real estate, which is an accurate description.

To flip websites, you'll need to first acquire or create a website, then grow it with high quality articles and building backlinks to it. The goal is to make the blog as attractive to a potential buyer as possible. The same way you would do when buying and flipping a house. Except with domain flipping, you want to generate as much traffic and user engagement possible, to increase its earning and income potential. Once you've done this, you can then sell it to interested buyers at a significantly higher price.

Sometimes, people will pay thousands or even millions for websites, but here's what I've learned from my experience. The people who make the most money doing this, often have teams of people to help them develop websites, or they are people who buy them at a premium and try to sell them later for a higher bid.

My point, is that if you're looking to get into this, and you don't have any experience in selling online, marketing or building successful websites, then you are setting yourself up for failure. Building a successful website is not easy and neither is generating traffic. It can be very labor intensive and time consuming, and also expensive. So consider this before getting into this industry.

And there you have it. The 6 proven and profitable ways to make money online. If you are interested in making money online, my advice is to first consider your strengths and skills. What are you best at? Then decide how you can use those skills to make money. Also remember, just because your skills are at a lower level than others today, doesn't mean they will be there tomorrow.

Spend time developing your skills, because that's how you'll make more money. The more you learn, the more you have to leverage into bigger future opportunities. Once you've chosen a business model based on your strengths and skills, start building your business. The most successful are those who take action, and the biggest failures are those who wait for the "perfect time" to act.

So decide now and begin to take action. Put in the effort and work necessary and before long, your dreams of online success will be realized.

Feel free to ask questions and share your own experiences.

I look forward to connecting with you soon!

Ra

I totally agree with article but I prefer your number 1 (Selling Digital Product) and number 4 - Affiliate marketing: This is due to the leverage advantage attached to these two form of online money generation stratgey - create one and sell as many time as possible. The true secret of wealth is leveraging your self via a product. musician leverage their music via cds, developers via software, writers via book and articles.

I have noticed that to implement this two model are hard due to lack of software - like shopping cart that is tailored to Nigeria audience. Most shopping cart software like e-junkie, dpd, samcart and many other are tailored to US market. But here is a simple & affordable shopping cart called [url]sproutsale.com[/url] that provide secured storage, masked file delivery, customer invoice, social selling, discount coupon, building your affiliate and many more.

https://sproutsale.com/

hillus:
I totally agree with article but I prefer your number 1 (Selling Digital Product) and number 4 - Affiliate marketing: This is due to the leverage advantage attached to these two form of online money generation stratgey - create one and sell as many time as possible. The true secret of wealth is leveraging your self via a product. musician leverage their music via cds, developers via software, writers via book and articles.

I have noticed that to implement this two model are hard due to lack of software - like shopping cart that is tailored to Nigeria audience. Most shopping cart software like e-junkie, dpd, samcart and many other are tailored to US market. But here is a simple & affordable shopping cart called [url]sproutsale.com[/url] that provide secured storage, masked file delivery, customer invoice, social selling, discount coupon, building your affiliate and many more.

https://sproutsale.com/

I've looked at the site, and I'm interested. Are you the founder/creator of Sprout Sale?

radragan:


I've looked at the site, and I'm interested. Are you the founder/creator of Sprout Sale?

Yes, I am. I thank you for your review and your interest. You can signup for the service at https://sproutsale.com/auth/signup
The pricing is available at https://sproutsale.com/help/pricing

Since our 150 customers promo is still on. You are qualified for 1 free month subscription. After signup, just contact me at hello@sproutsale.com or sproutsale@gmail.com to activate the free offer for you.

Mark
Sproutsale

hillus:


Yes, I am. I thank you for your review and your interest. You can signup for the service at https://sproutsale.com/auth/signup
The pricing is available at https://sproutsale.com/help/pricing

Since our 150 customers promo is still on. You are qualified for 1 free month subscription. After signup, just contact me at hello@sproutsale.com or sproutsale@gmail.com to activate the free offer for you.

Mark
Sproutsale

Thanks! I will do that as soon as I reply to this thread. I would also like to talk to you about another opportunity I have in mind. I will send the details to your inbox.