Are you online to make money?
There are a lot of reasons to be online, not all of them are to make money as we talked about in a post last week (What’s Your Revenue Model?) but if you are online to make money the question has to be .. how do you make enough money monthly to help with the bills or even as a primary income source?
Before you know exactly how much money you can make online you need to understand how money is made online and what revenue models exist. Once that’s accomplished you need to take a look at how much money you can make and the methods for reaching those goals.
If you’re online to make money then you need to look at how a basic advertising model such as Google Adwords can earn you cash. It’s actually pretty straight forward although it’s a little daughting for some new comers.
- Sign up for a free account with Google Adsense
(note that when you’re selling ad spots you use Adsense, when you’re buying ad placements you use Adwords) - Register a domain name and setup hosting with a company such as BlueHost
- Upload your website to your domain, or use a free blogging package such as WordPress
- Install your Adsence code into your WordPress or website template
- Promote your website and write great content
These five easy steps are all that it takes for anybody from an out of work stock trader to a stay at home mom or retired couple to make real money online. It works because there is always somebody one step behind your learning curve in a chosen specialty or your stage of life. The first true step to making online money is realizing that the things that you know are valuable and people want to share in your wisdom and experiences, it doesn’t matter if your 25 or 75 … you know things and people want to read about it.
How much money can you make online?
That question is a pretty big one to answer and it depends upon a few things:
- How much time can you invest in being successful online?
- What can you share with the world?
- Will people want to read about it?
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Plentyoffish.com is a free online dating website, it’s run from the owners apartment and makes a million dollars a year … I’m not kidding. Askthebuilder.com pulls in $40,000 a month promoting home building and renovation expertise. The trick is to establish your CPM (cost per thousand) for a market and increase your website’s traffic to build off of that traffic. The Adsense report to the right demonstrates how a simple website can build not only increased traffic but also revenue from visitors with the placement ads.
In that example, the website owner received 35,243 page views yesterday which resulted in 265 clicks and earnings of $128.33 for the day. Assuming this was an average day for the author, his revenues for February would be $3,593.24 … not bad for running an online blog about something he (or she) was passionate about.
Shameless Self Promotion – Blogging is easy but sometimes the technical gets in the way of telling the world about yourself and your interests. When I’m not writing about blogging, I setup WordPress blogs for people at a reasonable rate, so if you need help please feel free to drop me a line.
[...] you need to read my article called Are You Online to Make Money?, which will tell you how to setup a Google AdSense account and begin selling ads for your [...]
Although how long does it take to create blog which gives 128/day? =))
Webkinz’s last blog post..Webkinz Jr. Releases by Ganz
Well, I’d prefer not to say who’s web stats those are but I can tell you that it took four months to build the traffic using the tips you can find here on my blog.
With enough traffic in a niche it definaty is possible to make cash. Especially if you can work your way to the top in terms of respect. Be the go to guy, per se. Affiliates then play a factor too.
Gennaro’s last blog post..Hawaii Hotels Empty: Deals?
Thanks for a great reminder that making money online is very doable if you’re willing to learn a few things and work hard.
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Your 5 step plan is perfect for getting started. Of course there’s a lot of details that we all learn from trial and error, but the most important thing is to just get started.
Mike Collins’s last blog post..What Scrooge McDuck Taught Me About Internet Marketing
What a great list! There are so many ways to make money online and supplement your income. Keep up the great work :)
[...] Are you online to make money? [...]
I’d really like to know how to make some money online – this looks like a great start!
David’s last blog post..Back to school!
Great post. Honestly, what is most interesting to me is when you look at how much you need to make a day in order to make that kind of money. I think 128$ a day and I think that’s manageable. Setting your sites on the smaller focus, you can get a better feel for how you’re keeping up with your goals and track your progress.
R&B Love Songs‚Äôs last blog post..Keith Mitchell: After 7’s Untold Story
Like the old saying goes, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Start by aiming to earn $1 a day and once you do, aim for $2. Just keep climbing until you’re happy :)
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I’ve always known that the answer to building a decent online revenue was always related to the amount of page views. In your example where the person had over 35000 views and only 265 clicks shows that he is only generating under 1% click through rate. No wonder I’m not making that sort of cash. Then again, I am enjoying what I am doing and that on it’s own is priceless.
Sire’s last blog post..The Advantages Of Hosting Your Own Blog
I have used the 5 steps that you have writen about and still have not gotten to the 5.00 a month mark. I thought that I was doing it right and trying my best but still no luck. I need more advice please. If anyone out there reads this and takes alook at my site please email me or leave a comment back. Thanks alot and I really like your site and will be back.
Blaine Sword’s last blog post..The new “Green” Motorola cell phone
@Blaine, much like Dora’s advice I have to suggest you just keep swimming. The process take a lot of effort to build but it also takes time. Google only updates their rankings a few times a year, so your best bet is to keep working hard and when they do the next round of updates you’ll see the difference.
@Sire, you’re spot on. I honestly don’t know what an average click rate is but from what I’ve read online (I’m always suspect of peoples published numbers) and experienced myself, ~1% clicks seems to be a good low estimate.
I suppose they believe that they need to justify to people their expertise by lying about what they are making. Personally I don’t give a crap, it’s not the lies that will bring me back so much as the quality of their posts.
Sire’s last blog post..Radio 2FU, Sire And The John Chow Confrontation
Four month is a very good result. I still couldn’t be so fast. Sometimes the niche couldn’t bring such amount of money, other times the niche is too competitive =)
Webkinz’s last blog post..Webkinz Jr. Releases by Ganz
You have touched the basics of making money online but the real problem is that of traffic. How do someone climb the ladder of more than 30,000 page views per day? It is not all that easy and that is why most people are frustated and seem not to make anything at all. My advise? JUST KEEP GOING. It is gonna be alright. Make good comments, follow people on twitter and let them follow you, use social bookmarking sites well and it will eventually pay
My friend and I have started our own small website and internet marketing the site to attract some visitors to buy products from our clients. This can really help make good money.
Great post, If you can make money without lying, why would you even consider the alternative? You may be able to make more, but there more important things than money!
“Like the old saying goes, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time…”; I love this comment. I started my blog not to long ago, and for now I am not even thinking about revenue, just getting some good content, and some search engine visitors. Once I am on the right path I will consider setting some profit goals.
Casper @mymoneyblog.info’s last blog post..Japanese Candlesticks – Part Two: Doji
one thing to remeber is dont expect to see the dollars roll in for quiet some time, it takes months to start establishing a customer or visitor base. word of mouth and backlinking from people who love your site takes time
brett @ the daily gadget’s last blog post..Samsung HMX 106 HD 64GB SSD Camcorder
I’m slowly working away at it and building the traffic and clicks, but I’m a loooooooooooooooong way from $128 a day. Twould be nice.
Freelance Biz’s last blog post..Moo Cards