Why is it so hard to start an online business? All I want to do is work for myself, generate income for my family, and work from home. Of course I would LOVE to make millions of dollars, BUT, I would be 100% happy just making a decent income working from home while keeping my kids with me. Can someone help me? I don’t want or need any scammy advice, just real, honest help. I’ve been trying for 4 years to start something and nothing seems to work, or it makes me a little money and then stops. I know how to create my own website, I know about social marketing (or at least enough I think), I know a fair amount about SEO, but I think maybe I just can’t find the right niche? I also can’t seem to get my websites out there enough, so I obviously don’t know enough! HELP!!
The Web offers tremendous opportunities for those who know how to harness it. You hear of stories of people who earn thousands if not millions of dollars from doing business on Web. While there are many scams (same way in the traditional business world), there are various ways you can legitimately make money on the Web.
Here are the main ways you can earn money from the Internet:
1. Sell products on the Web – You can either sell: (a) through your own storefront through your own website or applications such as Yahoo Stores; or (b) sell through online auctions like eBay
2. Information Delivery. Others such as About.com or EuropeforVisitors.com create content and monetize their content in a number of ways:
a. Advertising – there are several ways you can earn money from advertising:
1. Join an advertising network. Advertising networks are organizations that aggregate Web sites that offer advertising space, and sell banner ads (and other advertising options) across them. Traffic requirement is often a minimum of 5,000 monthly impressions, although many do not accept sites hosted by free page services.
Burst Media http://www.burstmedia.com
ValueClick = http://www.valueclickmedia.com
2. Participate in contextual advertising networks. Contextual advertising are text ads delivered based on the content of the web page using an automated system.
Google Adsense https://www.google.com/adsense/
Kontera = http://www.kontera.com
Chitika = http://www.chitika.com
3. Sell advertising for your site directly. This is admittedly a more difficult route for a small business site wanting to earn advertising revenues. But hey, as they say: “no pain, no gain!”
b. Affiliate Programs – you sell other people’s products that your audience may be interested in; and you get a certain commission after the desired action was done (whether a sale, a lead, subscription to email newsletter, or however this is defined)
c. Paid online content. Hoovers.com or WebmasterWorld.com Supporters forum all require paid subscription before accessing the information
d. Content licensing and syndication. Some publishers such as the Associated Press get paid every time their content is published elsewhere