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Suppose you already decided to be a web worker. (Tongue in Cheek)
Congratulations.
That was easy.
Now comes the hard part.
What next? Where do you begin?
Firstly,
Figure out what you want to do. There are several ways you can make money online. Here I shall share 4 ways, you can do one or do all. Word of advice, it is better to start small, one thing at a time than to attempt all at once. When you get better, you can always progress to bigger things.
Take the time to think about your skills and anything of value that you would like to market in the cyber world. Your skills and expertise are what will determine what you will thread on eventually.
1. Start a blog
Sites like Blogger, Wordpress & Tumblr has made it a breeze to for anyone to start. The challenge is though how to earn from it. You may want to attract advertisers to buy adspace or put up adsense but to do that you must generate enough traffic to your blog. Traffic will come if your blog provides value to readers. Professional bloggers have the distinction of writing on their expertise so think and write about what you are good at. Typically, you must have good writing skills and an acute sense of knowledge. You may diverse to do product reviews or affiliate marketing but even so, blogging about it is still about content, so write well with value for your readers.
Contrary to what others might think, no one would want to read a blog about what you had for breakfast, how your dog died or if you didn’t shower this morning. (Unless you are Angelina Jolie, no one is really interested what you do day to day). Advertisers want to work with a blogger who can make clear judgements between personality and professionalism. You are encouraged to be personal but not TOO personal. If you want to fill the internet with your sob stories, DON’T. Rarely would you make money this way.
2. Sell Stuffs Online
Majority of us will want to start here. I did. I started with my immediate friends in Facebook with no website whatsoever. Or you can even sell at eBay. I just decided I want to approach people with my dresses and took off from there. Though this may be the easiest path to follow, there are several things you need to note.
Do you have a product to sell? Is there a market for it?
I find that products that are easy to sell tend to have tons of competitions. If you like to introduce an innovative product that’s unique with less competition, find out if there is a market for it first. When I was selling my dresses, many asked if I can recommend good backless and strapless bras. That spurred me to source for Brastick as the purchase will complement my dresses very well.
[Note: At the time of this post, I had more enquiries on Brasticks than the order. That is a good thing. Another learning curve.]
[Note: At the time of this post, I had more enquiries on Brasticks than the order. That is a good thing. Another learning curve.]
You may know or source for wholesalers who’s willing to arrange dropshipping or others who can work with small business owners by reducing the bulk minimum order. Sites like Amazon, Clickbank and Doha offers tons of products you can affiliate with. For a price, World Wide Brands can even connect you with wholesalers or dropshippers world wide.
How much capital is involved?
The best things in life are free. (Well, almost)
In my next article, I will share with you,
- · How to start an online business with very little or no capital
- · Determine a market for your products and sourcing for them
- · Can you trust your wholesaler?
- · Launching your products
Please subscribe for the next article.
3. Freelance
Register yourself with sites like Elance or Freelance Zone. There are various skills required from accounting to website designing to even mundane tasks like data entry. You may have those specific skills and if you do learn to market those skills and actively source for clients.
Get that first gig.
There are many jobs to choose from but employers tend not to trust someone without any feedback, so you remain pigeonholed until someone decides to take a leap of faith and hire you. A good strategy in this situation is to bid the lowest possible amount and take the financial hit in order to land that first project and some positive feedback from the employer. Employers most often will return to the same freelancer over and over again if they like your work and trust that you can deliver. Believe me, it takes a lot more time and energy to find another freelancer when there is a deadline crunch. Aim to get that one repeated client and have them recommend you to others. As you progress, you can increase your fees accordingly.
Bid a lot and use a great template.
Write one highly persuasive project proposal and save it as a template. Use it to save time and maximize the number of assignments you are bidding on each month. If you find that you are not getting offered any projects after 20 bids, go back and revise your template. Strive to use all of your bids every month, because the more bids you use, the more opportunities you have to get work.
You can turn down projects if you have too much on your plate, but chances are you will use 15-20 bids before you receive one project award in the beginning. As you complete projects and receive great feedback, the ratio will begin to decline and you will be spending fewer bids per awarded project. However, if you receive negative feedback for a project, expect the ratio of bids per awarded project to increase until you can get your feedback rating back in good standing.
Answer quickly and produce even quicker.
When an employer hires you for a project, answer all communication (phone calls, emails, etc.) from the employer as soon as you get them. Strive to complete the project ahead of schedule. The faster you work, the more money you are making for your time. Note: Do not work so quickly that you compromise quality.
Never give out free samples.
If an employer asks for a sample design, artwork, logo, article whatever – especially for a specific idea or campaign, DON’T - There are many scam artists that never intend to hire a freelancer but instead use their project and market it to other people for their own benefit.
4. Online Network Marketing
To the likes of one who has been introduced to network marketing or multi level marketing (MLM), this would be the easiest and perhaps the fastest way to make money online. No longer do you have to do sales call or bring prospects down for a ‘seminar’ in the hope that they will buy or get recruited. Online, you simply send an email and get your prospect to watch a video presentation in that email. Companies like Global Domain International offers this opportunity so people would continue to subscribe to their web hosting and domain provider services. You get paid for as long as your members subscribe to the services you referred them. Duplication just gets automated.
Fact, my decision to start a blog, starting a website and integrating an e-store spurs from having to subscribe to a domain provider referred to me by a friend. It was an added bonus that there was the opportunity to earn by referring their services.
Ask me anything, I will try to assist or guide you along. You may even have a dedicated post written here.
Earn your first dollar online here.
Posted in: Entrepreneurship
