Here’s how most people earn money online:
1. Affiliate Marketing
There’s no end of third party products you can promote on your website as an “affiliate”. You earn a commission by referring customers to that product via a unique tracking link assigned to you.
2. Paid Advertising
There are many formats paid advertising comes in, such as:
Banners: eye-catching (often animated) adverts, with links which take you directly to a product website.
Text links: embedded into posts, so that readers are enticed to take a further look.
Images: similar to banners, except the images are static. Usually integrated into articles/posts.
Job boards: a section of the site where individuals pay to advertise their services (e.g. website developers, or ).
Guest posts: a third party pays a fee to write a page on a website, with the view to increase exposure to their own product, services, or ’cause’.
Product reviews: influencers (e.g. popular Bloggers) accept money in exchange for a product review. Very common in Youtube Vlogging.
Social media posts: those with large followings are paid to post about a particular product. For example, celebrities sharing images of themselves wearing branded clothing.
Email marketing: using an opt-in list to promote products on behalf of another company.
3. Services
Once you have an audience — such as newsletter subscribers, social media followers, and website traffic — then you’re in a position to provide services. Many site owners will testify that this is the key to increasing their earnings.
Here’s some examples of online services:
Courses & Tutorials: being knowledgeable and respected in certain fields means you might be in a position to teach it. This could be in the form of an online course, or a physical presentation (e.g. a seminar).
Consulting: some website owners charge by the hour, providing advice on their area of expertise.
Freelance Writing: many site owners publish their own content, and therefore have the skills to write freelance. I’ve taken on a few myself, in fact.
Design, Branding, Business Development: website owners often have some other skills — graphic design, or SEO, for instance. These services are required by many new startups.
4. Selling Products
There are numerous products, physical and digital, you might decide to sell via your website.
Many online shops sell products using the Woocommerce or Shopify plugins for WordPress — or Sellfy for digital products. There’s plenty of other shopping cart platforms to help get you started.
Some examples of products commonly sold online:
e-Books
Music
Photography
Images, web graphics and vectors
Exclusive podcasts
Webinars or video training courses
Software
Templates (e.g. for emails or websites)
Plugins (e.g. WordPress)
5. Selling Itself
Skilled SEO experts, who understand how Google page rankings are decided, can generate a steady flow of organic traffic to their website. They often do so with the intent of selling it on. Build up a site’s value, sell it, and repeat.
I’ve met people doing this for a living, earning enormous sums from it. Companies are willing to invest in ready-made sites; .
Note: Most of these suggestions can’t be treated as “get rich quick” schemes. Even freelancing — the obvious option — requires a lot of dedication. You also need to have skills that people would be willing to pay for. And on that note, you’ll generally need to show previous experience (e.g. feedback ratings or referrals) to be taken on as a freelancer to begin with!
