How Making Money Online Works
There are quite literally 1000’s of ways to make money online, but like anything else, there is an easy way or a hard way…
And a wrong way and a right way!
So before learning how making money online really works, it would help to know what to avoid, right?
Avoiding the scams
While there are heaps of ways to earn money online, unfortunately, there are thousands of scams out there that lure the unsuspecting into their traps!
They promise “get rich quick”, “easy money” and “done for you systems” that require little effort.
Here is an example of a few headlines I just found in a couple of Facebook groups:
- “Make $25 for every email you process and get paid instantly. If you can process just 10 emails a day, you will make $7,500 per month. You are guaranteed to get paid instantly for each email you process. No experience required.”
- “What’s stopping you from making money EVERYDAY?!! I mean seriously, all you do is copy & paste! This is so easy my son can do it! If you are SERIOUS & MOTIVATED comment YES below for details! Why not get paid to be on Facebook, when you’re already on it all day anyways? Are YOU READY to make money every day?! **WORLDWIDE**”
- “If you could earn $6.00 for every lead you generate, how many times would you share your link each day? multiple $6 for every lead NOW THAT’S MONEY $$$$$$$$$$$$$”
- “This is a life-changing event for you as this organisation
is GUARANTEED to make you a MILLIONAIRE in less than one year!You don’t need any experience, skill or knowledge. Everything is done for you.
Get started right away:”
Makes you want to jump in and sign up, doesn’t it?
The funny thing is that sometimes you do make some money joining these scams, but it’s mainly just the guy at the top that profits at your expense.
The common denominator is that what you are promoting in these systems, is the system itself!
There actually isn’t really a product to sell!
I hate to admit it, but I got caught up in one of these scams in the past, and I feel guilty for having promoted it.
You see at one point, I really wanted to scale my business and increase traffic…
So I came across a system called “The Free Lead System”, which promised endless “free leads” on autopilot!
I opted in and my “sponsor” then told me how to get all of the free leads, which was to basically spam my link all over social media.
Wow! Amazing right?
And of course, there was an upsell…
If I went to the next level and paid $7, then I could spam my link and keep $6 for every lead I generated…
And of course, there was another upsell on top of that, and another, and then a down sell…
But what was the product here?
Spamming a link to get people to join a “system” of spamming a link!
“Oh, but you get all of these free leads that you can promote your offers to,” He said.
Seriously?
I would have been better off spending my time getting people to opt-in to my email list!
Luckily I was only out of pocket $7, but you can see how people can get sucked into losing a lot of money?
You can see how people can go from one of these systems to another and get disillusioned with the whole process of making money online, label it all a scam and give up altogether?
It’s not their fault…
That’s how these scammers set these things up…
With clever marketing and promises of what we all need… money, lot’s of it and fast!
But that’s not how making money online works in the real world…
Yes, you can make some money fast, but there is no guarantee…
Yes, the process is actually fairly simple, but not necessarily easy…
Yes, it can be set up so that over time it can be automated and systemized to create financial freedom and set you time free…
But, as I said, it takes time, effort, work, learning new skills, and perseverance!
AND, it’s SO WORTH IT!
How making money online REALLY WORKS
As I mentioned before, the process of making money online is fairly simple at its core.
Have a look at the image to get a visual.
It all starts with your audience that is already actively searching for what you are offering.
They are either searching for something in particular on Google and come across some content you have created, or they find something interesting on social media and they click on your link which leads them to your website.
Your website is where you can provide more information for your visitors as well as making recommendations of products and services.
If they take action on your recommendations and buy something… then you make money!
The quickest way to get started with this process (and remember, I’m not saying the quickest way to get rich) is affiliate marketing.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is simply promoting other people’s products and services, and if a sale is made, you make a commission.
This way you don’t have to take the time to create a product yourself, you leverage other people’s knowledge and expertise in a win-win relationship.
There are hundreds of different affiliate programs you could join (for free) and millions of products to promote in any niche or market you could think of.
Some of the more well-known affiliate programs are Amazon and Clickbank, but even big stores such as Target has an affiliate program.
How it works, is you are given a unique link that you put on your website or post to social media and when a sale is made, the link is tracked back to you and you are paid a commission, often as high as 50% of the sale price.
For example, you could be interested in photography and cameras.
You write a review on your website about a certain camera for sale on Amazon for $200.
Someone is searching on Google, looking for information on cameras and comes across your article.
They read your review, click on your affiliate link and buy the camera.
Then Amazon pays you a commission of $100 into your Paypal account.
The best part is that somebody else does the same thing every couple of days and you keep getting paid a few hundred dollars a week, over and over, for a couple of hours work that you did ONCE!
You see, you are not selling a “system”, you are promoting real products that people are ALREADY looking for information about.
You help them and you get paid!
Nice work, don’t you agree?
You can also promote lucrative information products and create ongoing “residual” income by promoting software and other services.
Once you gain more experience, however, you may want to take the next step and create your own products.
Creating your own information products
Once you begin to make some income affiliate marketing and you get more experienced, believe it or not, you start to actually become an expert!
Scary thought hey?
It’s actually true, and creating your own information products can be very lucrative as they are cheap to make, sell for a high value, and pay you over and over again.
For example, you can write an eBook.
Here is my first eBook I created:
I first put this together to give away for free to entice people to opt-in to my email list, but I now sell it on my site for $7…
…and all I did was string a few blog posts together, added some additional information, a few quality images, and sent it off to Fiverr.com and for $5 they prettied it up and made it look a bit more professional!
The point is, that it is not that hard to put together an eBook that you can sell for $7-$37 and sell over and over again, day after day, year after year.
What about an online course?
Several years ago, I created a series of videos that expanded a bit further on the concepts in my eBook, and I have sold that course for $197 and it still sells today on my website for $97.
This was only after I had been working online for about a year and all I did was teach concepts that I have learned with my own particular “take” on them.
Do you think that if you started learning these concepts now, that in a few years time you could create a course that could sell for a couple of hundred dollars?
How about a couple of thousand?
I am sure you could!
Anything is possible online when you learn the right concepts, work hard and don’t give up on your dreams!
Becoming an expert
When you start creating your own online courses you really have positioned yourself as an expert, so what comes next?
How about membership sites, coaching, group coaching and 1-on-1 consulting?
As a backend to your core-offer, this can be highly lucrative and create a massive residual income.
And if you already are a coach or consultant, then think about adding some of these income streams into the mix.
What other related services could you promote as an affiliate offer?
Could you create an online course to sell for passive income?
Could you add group coaching services so you can raise your prices for your 1-on-1 consulting?
The options are endless, and none of them involves spamming a link to a so called “system”
Tying it together
Tying it all together, I would start with promoting some affiliate offers.
Once you gain experience, you can create your own online courses and eBooks.
Then you can add in some coaching, consulting and membership sites.
I would also add some related software services for further residual income.
You can do it in this order, or mix it around a bit, the choice is yours…
The main point to remember though is it’s not really about “make money online” or “make money fast”… that’s what the scammers and spammers promote.
What’s really important to remember is that this is “the expert” business.
You are teaching…
You are helping…
You are adding value…
If you don’t think that you are an expert, I assure you that you already are…
Start teaching what you already know…
And when you learn more, then you teach more…
The more that you can help people, the more value you can add, the more the money will naturally follow…
That’s how making money online REALLY works!
Let me know your thoughts.
To your freedom,
John W. Newman
Financial Freedom Warrior – Join the Movement…
Helping you create TIME AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM by building a PROFITABLE Business Online!
Dream It… Believe It… Then Achieve It!
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I can identify with you as someone who in the past has bought into a few scams. It is great that your article is bringing attention to some of the scams that are online today. I am also considering doing an Ebook at some point, but I’m not quite there yet. How did you find the services of fiverr?
Hi Harrison, fortunately, I didn’t really get involved with the scams online as I found Wealthy Affiliate early in my research online… In the property market, however, I got burned pretty badly by some “spruikers” and I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone!
I found Fivver from a recommendation and they do some good work, although sometimes it can be hit and miss, fortunately, It doesn’t cost a fortune to use their services!
Good luck with the eBook!
John,
I lover your site:
– Down to earth
– Straight Forward talk
– No BS
– Fun to read
– Easy to understand
– Simple to navigate
– What else to say… Other than I am Newbie, so be careful that I may not be your best critic!
Thanks for the education, though!
Bert
Newbie or not Bert, I appreciate your kind words!
Glad you liked it! 🙂
The scams man. Horrible how people make money giving people false hopes. Your words are wise. It is sometimes hard to spot a scam but your tips are helpful. There are so many ways to generate income. It’s unfortunate that many people lose a big chunk of wasted time and money.
Yeah, I agree Mason!
Generally, if there are promises of “get rich quick”, “easy or fast money” then it is probably wiser to stay away!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
Hi, John again a very interesting article. To make money with my website is actually my goal as well. I just lost the idea of what I should sell a bit. Amazon kicked me out because I had no sells within three months. Now I concentrate on creating a well-visited site with a lot of interesting content and know the right product to sell will come to my mind in the right moment. The main thing of a website is to have helpful content, like yours and the selling will come by itself I believe.
Hey Stefan, Amazon can be a bit tricky.
I know a lot of people make a great living selling Amazon products, but the commissions are actually quite low and you have to move a lot of volume to make some decent money!
I would try some other affiliate programs in your niche and keep doing what you are doing by writing out some great content!
Best of luck 🙂
Hello, John, I don’t know if the first comment went so I am sending it again, Pretty amazing information on scammers. What I want to say is thanks a million for your help because I learned about click funnels through you and they are pretty amazing
Would love to take the course that you offer just need to get the money together first. You have been a great help to me and for that I thank you. Wishing you continued success.
Hey Norman, yes it did go through, and thanks for your continued support! 🙂
Hello John thanks for sharing this amazing article on scams and their bags of tricks, it is so amazing how these scammers make it all seem so easy. What I want to say here is that I want to learn more from you about click funnels and take the course that you are offering just need to get some money together first.
Thanks a million for your knowledge and for helping me. Wish you continued success.
No problem Norman!
The CF Bootcamp training is actually free, so if you want to take a look at it, you can get access here: Affiliate Bootcamp
Thanks for commenting! 🙂
No problem Norman!
There is actually some free training you can take with Clickfunnels, you can access it here: Affiliate BootcampThanks for the support and feedback 🙂
Hi John, when I started reading the post I remember a website that I saw yesterday and it was promising 25$ per hour to watch videos.
Anyway, I am an affiliate marketer and I consider to create my own product. So, I saw your $7 ebook and I have two questions:
How many pages have you written and how long does it take to create one?
Yeah, if only it was so easy to just watch videos and make money!!
As for your questions regarding the eBook, it’s not so much about the number of pages, as it’s the content that matters, but I believe that one was 30 pages.
It generally doesn’t take that long to put together, as I will re-purpose a lot of the content I have already written and put it together in eBook form.
If you were just starting from scratch though, I am sure you could put one together in a week or, depending on how long it is and how well you know your content.
Still not bad though, when you consider this can pay you over and over again for the rest of your life, right?
Thanks for commenting! 🙂