One of the main aims of this web site is to encourage and support people who are interested in making some money from the Internet and to also dispel the myth that it is easy to make money online!  Actually it would be fair to say that it is not easy to make money using any method, online or not. Sometimes it can be very hard to make money, but whatever method used it is never easy. It may be easy to con people into parting with money for little in return, but as a method to make easy money online that is not for you or I.

The trouble is that the Internet is a powerful tool for selling anything, be it a scam or a valid product.  There are so many people out there anxious to find a way to earn more money or give up their day job to work from home – and an equally huge number of entrepreneurs willing to sell them dubious methods.  I came across the concept of affiliate marketing some years ago and felt that it could offer a source of income for me.  However, time has gone by and I am not earning money this way!

Why have I not earned (much) money affiliate marketing? Because it is not an easy way to make money online.  It takes more time and investment than I can afford to give – without giving up my day job that is. A good affiliate site can make millions, but will cost millions to build and run – potentially making a substantial profit for the owners. Whatever the size of the site it must be set up professionally and be marketed in the same way.  It is a business like any other.  It is not so easy to sit in your bedroom, knock up a website and expect to earn lots of money.

Yet many of these “how to” affiliate marketing programs are sold as failsafe “autopilots” that will churn out revenue for you while you sleep.  If this was the case then the person selling the program would do better to keep on setting up new sites surely?

I could list instructions in this article how to earn money from affiliate marketing:

1. Research a niche area that could be profitable for you and is something that you have an interest in so that you can keep up an enthusiastic approach.

2. Research “keywords” associated with your niche that can be targeted and will attract value – this is a subject that could fill a book – suffice to say here that you need to find a way to acquire a keyword with “potential” that attracts large quantities of web surfers looking to buy something related to that keyword – and is a key word that you can promote your site for readily.

3. Set up a web site – WordPress blogs are so easy to set up and edit to look professional – add Amazon or Ebay affiliate links – or even Google Adsense using readily obtainable software that upgrades your web site to a selling site (monetization).

4. That’s it – your online business is set up – your autopilot business is ready – time to set up another, then another…

But just a minute, nobody is going to visit your site yet.  Even if you get your product niche right and your keywords are understood – you still have to do all the work now – to get traffic to your web site.  This is why people still think they can make easy money online – they do not appreciate that the biggest part of the battle is to push the web site up the Google (and other search engines) ranking for the chosen keywords.

There are many companies that specialise in search engine optimisation. They will charge huge sums to increase your web site rankings. If you have a niche site selling blue widgets, you will want your site to feature on page 1, preferably in the top positions, of Google if somebody uses the search term “blue widgets”. When this happens, you will start to make money, whatever you are selling. If you do not want to pay somebody to do this for you, then you must list your site in the directories and build back links to your site and this could be a full time job for months/years.  It is possible, and you can promote several sites – for example writing articles to post on article directories with links back to your site. You can pay people to write the articles, as many of the search engine optimisation companies do, thus gearing up your business.

So it is possible to make a career out of the Internet – as a marketer. However, it is not easy money but it does develop as passive income. Residual income can be earned from any web site you have set up long after you stop working on it. So if you do build a web site portfolio, the benefit is that work put in now will reap dividends for months and years into the future.

If you are interested in building up a part time or full time residual income stream, try looking at the Keyword Academy web site. You can try their program for a month free, using Paypal which you can cancel easily. However, most people let their membership run and start paying the $33 every month as the information available and the tools supplied are actually quite amazing. I am not a member now but did learn a lot over around 12 months – and am considering signing up again particularly for the access to very high quality backlinks that I will need if I am to develop a profitable online business!

This article explores the general feasibilty of making money online. Many people seeking a profitable businesss opportunity are often looking for an easy income. Some hate their nine to five routine and are looking to replace their job. Others simply want some more money, and after reading many of the online advertisements for various work at home income opportunioties, see their home computer as a route to easy riches.

After much research it is possible to confirm what is probably just common sense – there is now way to make a lot of easy money online. There are ways to make money easily, but to make significant amounts takes the application of sound business priciples, hard work and generally the investment of resources (including time and money). Looking at these areas in turn:

Application of good business practice

This is probably the biggest barrier to hopeful people making any sort of reasonable income online. Every week thousands of people subscribe to programs sold over the Internet claiming to offer the formula for online riches. Most of the people paying sometiomes quite a lot of money will never make anything themselves. The only people benefiting are the “gurus” who take the money! However, that is not to say that nmany of these programs do not work – in fact many of them do as they are simply a variation of the same theme – targetting traffic to landing pages that have pay per click advertsiements or affiliate links.

Once you have learned a number of basic ideas, you can see how it is possible to make money online. First you select a “niche area” or subject that is of interest to a reasonable group of Internet users who are likley to click on links on your site. Selecting this niche area requires marketing skill and an understanding of the dynamics of the Internet – but it is possible for most people to come up with a fair subject area with some potential for making – say around $50 per month. Then you build a web site around your niche – within a short period of time it is possible to learn how to do this, post some interesting content and add you pay per click advertsiements. Next you need to promote the site – to get some visitors, a proportion of whom will click on links and earn you money.

So far – so good. It has been possible to set up an online income generator – but turning it into a substantial income now needs the application of the busness skills mentioned above. Some of these can be considered as follows:

Market Research

Undertaking market research takes time. However, without it all your efforts building web sites and promoting them diligently might earn you zero revenue. You have to research the areas in whjich to work and how to exploit them properly. You have to judge the competition and match this to the investment you are prepared to put in. failinmg to incropoprate market research into you initial and ongoing business planning means that you are destined to either fail completely or at least opperate un-profitably.

Planning

Setting up one web site is not enough. You need a repeatable business model so that you can benefit from economies of scale. You need to insure your business against some sites performing badly or facing unforseen competition. You need to allocate your time where it will be utilised to the best extent. recording your activities means that you can make decisions as you go alopng based on result – fine tuining your business so that it becomes and stay  profitable.

Investment

Time will always be a constraining factor. There will be a limit to the number of areticle marketing activities you can do yourself and therefore the number of income earning web sites that you can not only set up but maintain with back links in order to get them ranked with the search engines. The solution is to pay somebody to write content and articles – and even to p[ost them for you. You are effectively building a team of staff – by outsourcing. This needs to be done carefully otherwise the costs will outweigh the benefits very easily – it is however the only way to grow an online business into s substantial income. You are effectively employing another important business skill – delegation.

Coordination

You skills in running a business will be tested severely when running 50, 100 or more web sites. You need to manage them – reduce the risk of having them all on one server, coordinate the posting of content and back links, record all financial transactions to minimise your tax burden (yes you will be running a business like any other – do not wait for the tax man to catch up with you!)

Conclusion

There are no easy ways to make money online. If you look at the typical revenue stream of somebody who spends a year trying to develop an online marketing business – they probably look something like:

January – zero

February – zero

March – zero

April – $5

May – $7

June – $10

July – $9

August – $11

September – $20

October – $30

November – $35

December – $45

Most p[people will give up after a month or two. Of those that are left, only a handful will last until the end of the year. By this time only the most dedicated, with solid business plans and an appetite for some business risk, will continue. Taking these figures as typical is reasonable – I have seen many people report similar and my own experience bears them up – but what happens for the tenacious few who continue with a lot of hard work and invest everything back into the business? Try the following for year 2:

January – $50

February – $100

March – $200

April – $500

etc etc – the revenues start increasing due to a number of factors. You have learned a lot over the first year and are consistently applying it to new sites you are setting up. You have shrewdly increased your productivity by investing in outsourced workers such that you maturing business framework is becoming increasingly attractive to the search engines and those that visit your site alike. There are easy ways to make a little money online, but by the application of sound business ideas (including patience) it is possible to make a substantial amount.