Welcome! This site is going to give you the knowledge you need to earn and make money online. These steps will help you create a successful online business. I put emphasis on the word successful because I want you to understand that, contrary to popular belief, earning an income online is not about getting rich quick. While it’s true that I wrote this article to get you the QUICKEST results as possible (because I know that the biggest hurdle to jump over is making your first dollar), I think we can both agree that the smartest thing we can do is to work towards creating a life of independence through sustainable entrepreneurship.
Can you make quick money online? Is that really possible? Sure. Is it possible to do it legally and not by selling your body on Craigslist? Of course it’s possible. Anything is possible. Now that you’re reeled in and ready to hear the big gimmick, be prepared, I’m not going to tell you to buy my set of old VHS tapes with all the big secrets. In fact, I’m really not going to give you any secrets. Instead, I’m going to introduce you to the resources I’ve personally used over the years to build a solid, sustainable income on the internet, which I personally believe you can replicate without paying me a dime 
If you stick with me through this article you should have no problem earning your first couple dollars within the next 72 hours. Watch out, Bill Gates… here we come!
Before we start, bookmark this site so that you can come back and refer to it if you can’t integrate everything today. Okay, let’s get started.
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The first resources I’ll share with you are ones that you can start using RIGHT NOW with nothing more invested than your time and energy. Contrary to what you may have heard, whether or not you own a website is not important when it comes to earning money online.
Step #1 – Setting up an account to receive funds
Open a Paypal account if you don’t already have one. Paypal is THE standard for sending and receiving payments on the web. Unless they opt to use checks or direct deposit, most people are going to pay you via Paypal. Verifying your account will take a couple of days, but you can receive money in the meantime.
Step #2 – Get paid for your time, writing, or other abilities.
Can you type? Do you know how to operate a mouse? Good, you have what it takes to earn a full-time income online! Freelancing sites are empowering nearly anyone to make a living online. You can think of freelancing as independent contracting. People are going to hire you to due a job on your computer. So, the second step is doing a self-inventory and figuring out what services you have to offer people.
As far as skills go, are you e a good graphic designer or programmer? Maybe you’re the next Shakespear… I don’t know, but don’t fret if you don’t have any technical skills because as long as you can type and click a mouse, people will be willing to pay you money for your time! I know this because I once hired a guy to post in a forum I owned so that it wouldn’t look dead. Literally anything you can think of doing with a computer there is somebody out there willing to pay to have it done.
-Don’t know what you have to offer? Click here to view an example of job categories that might help you recognize something you can do that is in demand. If your only assets are your time, internet connection, and computer, you might want to look at the ‘Data Entry’ or ‘Personal Assistant’ job listings. People hire virtual assistants to type things up, conduct research, check their e-mail for them, etc. The amount of money you can make as a virtual assistant will depend on the depends of the position. People will pay for reliability and performance, but most of all, professionalism. So conduct yourself as a business person at all times and you’ll really win people over and build repeat business.
Here are a few sources for freelancers:
Odesk – I absolutely love this site. It’s very user friendly and everyone I’ve hired has been top notch. Click here to view the job categories, which might help you realize what you can offer. If your only asset is your time you might want to look at the ‘Data Entry’ or ‘Personal Assistant’ job listings.
Other freelance sites: Guru.com, Elance.com
Get paid to write:
Associated Content – you’ll be paid based on how many people view your article or various other content.
About.com – You can make decent money here once you are accepted as an expert and gain a really nice resume bullet by writing for a highly reputable site.
Make sure you have Skype, as most online interviews are being done via webcam these days. Being a freelancer is an uber cool way to make money online since you are basically you’re own boss and can work from home. Another great aspect of freelancing is that if you are some sort of technical wizard or great multitasker you can take on as many projects as you can handle, which means your earnings are only limited by your availability time wise. You make your own hours. The beauty of this all is that freelancing doesn’t require you to have a formal education of any sort and with sites like LearnPHP you can teach yourself valuable technical skills that are always in demand and can make big bucks if you master them. Speaking of empowering education resources, I suggest you check out Khan Academy. People are always seeking out knowledgeable writers to create blog posts or articles and if you have a breadth of knowledge you will be able to crank out your products quicker.
Step #3 – Create valuable digital goods (like scripts, graphics, templates, etc.) for webmasters and product developers to buy (POWERFUL RECURRING INCOME!)
Are you Photoshop ace, musical artist, videographer, all-star web developer, or all of the above? Creating stock items for people to buy from you provides you an incredibly powerful revenue stream without having to have a website. All you have to do is create things that people want use use on their websites, books, etc. and you can make a lot of money. Check out these sites to get started:
iStockphoto – Buy and Sell stock photos, music, or video for use in print or web media
Audiojungle – Sell your music for people to use in their movies
Themeforest – Create blog and website templates for people to buy
Graphicriver – Use your photoshop skills to pay the bills
Activeden – Develop and sell your awesome scripts,Flash, etc.
Photo Den – Sell your stock photography
Step #4 – Sell (bad) gifts or things you don’t want anymore for profit. Become your neighborhood pawn shop (funny story)
Take a look around your room. Do you have anything sitting around that you don’t use anymore or have been meaning to throw away? Consider selling it. You can have your own little “virtual yard sale” on the two following sites I recommend:
eBay – I’m sure you’ve heard of eBay, but a lot of people use it strictly to buy things. Being a seller doesn’t mean you have to own a bunch of stuff. You can always
craigslist – Sell locally if you don’t want to deal with shipping stuff.
Creative ninja tricks to get your merchandise for cheap (buy low and sell high!): You can stock your virtual store with items from second-hand stores like the Goodwill or local classified ads. Another idea is to buy items from eBay and sell them at a higher price (have a separate selling account so that people don’t know where you get your merchandise). Or buy stuff on eBay and sell it locally. Whatever floats your boat… I also highly suggest you look for and buy great deals on your local craigslist or backpage to sell online at eBay or other auctions sites at a higher price.
Becoming your neighborhood pawn shop: I once had a friend who basically ran a neighborhood pawn shop. I used to tease him about it because he always had people stopping by his house to sell something. When people needed cash or wanted to get rid of stuff they didn’t want anymore they would come to him with goods (mostly electronics) and he would flip the products he bought locally on eBay. Just like a pawn shop, people tried to sell him stolen goods from time to time, but he was careful who he did business with and mainly stuck to people he knew weren’t shady. He put the word out around his neighborhood that he would buy whatever they had to sell at a better price than the local pawn shop. He would then turn around and sell this merchandise on eBay. He made a decent living doing this.
Let people bring great products to you to sell for cheap. You’ll be amazed at how easily this type of business runs, especially in a recession. During hard times people will appreciative when you give them a fair price for their goods. Ever see those cars around town advertising that the owner buys junk cars or whatever? Same idea. You want people to know that you will pay them a better price than the pawn shop for their goods. Always check on eBay to see whether or not there is a demand for an item before buying it from someone to prevent yourself from buying something that you won’t be able to sell for a profit. Buying merchandise offline to sell on eBay is a very viable income stream. My friend did it and was able to support his family on this income alone.
Speaking of eBay success stories, I also knew someone that would buy CARS on eBay for insanely low prices, drive them home, and sell them in his city at a much higher price than he bought them for. I remember him telling me he had to get a certain license to sell once he sold over a certain amount of cars every year, but he is a great story of how you can use the power of the internet to fuel a very lucrative business. It doesn’t have to be cars, but anything that costs several thousand dollars has the potential to give you good profit margins. Remember: buy low, sell high!
Step #5 – Get paid to do whacky things, odd jobs, and various other things at $5 a pop.
If freelancing and arbitraging merchandise aren’t taking up enough of your time, I know something that will: Fiverr. This little site has been making a name for itself as the site where people will do almost anything for $5. Do you have a unique talent or ability? Are you willing to write things on your body and take a picture of it for some company? the Fiverr homepage will give you an idea of the antics people are getting paid to do, but to make money on Fiverr you don’t have to do anything silly or embarrassing to make money. Plenty of people make money offering to tweet something to their followers on Twitter, post a status update to their 5,000 friends on Facebook, or even offer to talk to you (yes, people will pay you to pretend to be their friend). If you think about it this site is really ingenious because it allows people to make money from low-cost assets. Where else on the internet are you going to get PAID to post to your friends? Exactly.
Step #6 – Get paid to post to (abuse… kidding) your social media accounts
Other than on Fiverr, there are actual marketplaces dedicated to advertisers wanting to pay you to tweet something to your followers. You have to have a decent amount of followers for people to be interested in paying you, so check it out if you happen to be one of these power users like Kim Kardashian:
Sponsoredtweets.com – Used by celebrities and social media royalty to sell their tweets to the willing.
PaidPerTweet.com – Alternative to the above site that isn’t too shabby.
Step #7 – Flip virtual real estate
Just because you don’t own a website doesn’t mean that you can’t money money flipping them!
Flippa – enables you to buy other people’s websites or domains. There’s a huge market for this. You can buy a website that is already making money, buy an authority domain and charge people to advertise on it, or simply buy a great deal and sell it at a higher price on eBay, Flippa, or webmaster forums.
Step #8 – Get paid to do things computers can’t do
Mechanical Turk – Amazon will pay you to do tasks that require human intelligence and analysis.
Step #9 – Get paid to be your (awesome) self.
Your best bet is Youtube. Think about how many viral videos get millions, or even BILLIONS of views. Youtube Partners can make several thousand dollars per month being themselves or providing valuable content to the masses. All you need is a webcam or modern cellphone to start recording and uploading videos. Combining your entertaining videos with a personal blog can be the best way to build your brand and following.
-Two of my favorite Youtube Partners are TimothyDeLaGhetto and RayWilliamJohnson. How much do they make? I don’t know, but Ray is pretty much a household name and his videos get multiple millions of views every time he releases one, so I’m sure he’s doing alright.
Step #10 – Enjoy your profit and grow your business
If you’ve integrated ANY of the above steps you should now be making money. I hope you are proud of yourself for overcoming the hardest part: getting started. Now that you’ve got your feet wet you might want to think about what you’re going to do to expand your business and increase your earnings. I highly suggest reinvesting some of your profits back into your business by creating higher quality products, upgrading your equipment, or spending money to promote yourself.
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As you can see, if you don’t own a website you are going to be trading more of your time in return for the money you make. If you want to put your online income on auto-pilot there is no better idea than to build a strong website because your one-time investments of time (as in writing an article or blog post) can become tremendous assets and earn you money forever. If you want the basics of creating this web asset read the steps below.
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**BONUS INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE THAT ALREADY HAVE OR WANT TO START A WEBSITE**
Don’t Have Your Site Set Up Yet?
Step #1 – Buy your domain and hosting
If you don’t have a website yet, buy a domain name at Godaddy, then click here and sign up with Hostgator for one of their simple shared hosting plans. I have used them for years and besides being extremely simple to use, they have incredible customer support. Every time I’ve had a question or an issue I’ve received nothing but the best service. Whether you want to set up a WordPress blog, e-commerce site, or some other type of site, it Hostgator will make it a breeze.
Step #2 – You now have a site. Think about it as an appreciating asset that you are going to develop into something great, rather than a time-sucking money pit!
One of the great things about owning your own website is that you have something that can function as what I like to call “virtual real estate.” Literally, you should think of your website like a traditional real estate investment instead of just viewing it as a virtual dollar sign. Building a great site takes work, but it is totally worth it. If you don’t have the time So instead of asking yourself, “how can I make this website put dollars into my bank account tonight?!” think about what you can put into your website that will give you a long-term return on investment. Think about the amount of time you spend creating content the same as the blood, sweat and tears you would put into home improvement. The investments you make in content, functionality, design, video equipment (for video marketing and blogging), etc. the same way you would any other type of improvement project. When you transform the way you think about your website you will realize how seriously you need to take your project if you want to be successful. All the big name bloggers, such as dooce and Darren Rowse, have put a TON of time into their blogs, but look at where they are now. dooce’s story is pretty cool and inspiring.
The quickest and most fluid way to make money online is to take problems that people have and solve them. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, not really. Coming up with solutions is pretty challenging. Especially if you don’t know what types of problems people are having. Think about things you are passionate about in life. Whether they be sports, music, or some strange hobby. No matter what is it there are probably like minded people out there who are discussing problems that you can create solutions (a website, a forum, or an informational product) for. Find a forum for your niche and starting contributing as well as asking questions. NEVER build a site assuming you already know what people want. You need to do your research on what people want before you can try to fulfill their needs. Remember, the purpose of your site is to make money. The passion you have for the subject will naturally show if you’ve chosen the right niche.
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Step #3 – Determine whether unrealistic passion is fueling your website
If you already have a site up and running you have to be honest with yourself in terms of whether or not its realistic to expect income from whatever your site is about. Sure, people have made livings of of obscure hobbies, but why make it a lot harder on yourself? Making a six figure income from a site about ant farms will be harder than building a site targeting a larger audience, such as dating. So be realistic with yourself about what people are going to be willing to buy products and services from you for and ultimately what kind of market will be interested in advertising or partnering with your site. Another pitful to avoid is a general blog. Unless you have a crazy back story like dooce, you should avoid personal blogs when you are just starting out. Only once you’re famous for one reason or another does it make sense to have a blog totally about you and your life if you want a following. I’m hard on personal blogs, unless you’re Oprah or have some other way to provide entertaining value to people’s lives, because it’s going to be really hard to build a following when you’re initially posting about what you had for dinner and how tough life is. Honestly, no one cares other than your mother and (maybe) your friends. If you want a shot at being the next Oprah or one person that gets paid for being yourself, as I mentioned before, your best bet is Youtube. Youtube Partners can make several thousand dollars per month being themselves or providing valuable content to the masses. Combining your entertaining videos with a personal blog can be the best way to build your brand and following.
Step #4 – Getting people (traffic) to your site
I’ve written quite a few articles about this that will help you devise a traffic strategy for your site:
Step #5 – Monetizing your site
Selll advertisements on your site in the form of text links or ad banners.
People will pay you a monthly fee in return for the exposure you give them.
Displaying advertisements on your site
Give Adsense or Kontera a try.
Affiliate Marketing:
Perhaps the quickest and best way to quickly monetize a site that is receiving traffic is to sell someone else’s product. This type of partnership is called affiliate marketing. Two of the best sites to do this on are Clickbank (for informational products and services) and Commission Junction (for CPA, also known as cost per action).
Developing a product:
Find yourself a problem and then come up with a viable solution for it. REMEMBER: you need to interact with your potential customers before you develop something for them. Just because you think its a great idea doesn’t mean the rest of the world will. Ask your Twitter followers, newsletter subscribers, fellow forum members, etc. what they think is missing from the market place. Think you can do it? The problems you solve don’t necessarily have to be grandiose problems about the origin of the universe, they just have to be problems that people have, that they struggle with so much, that they’d seek someone else’s advice to solve them. We’re basically talking about informational products here.
There are the age old problems (aka “evergreen” problems because they are always present) that people have of how to fix their relationships, how to make some money, and how to not be so fat anymore. People love this stuff because they’ll try anything to fix their issues. I think there is just a certain type of person out there that loves this sort of thing. They love to have problems and struggle with fixing them. Well… take advantage, become a guru, create some information, and sell it.
Acquiring your own products, the easy way: There’s a bonus to this idea of selling information. You can it without doing all the hard work of creating everything. It’s called PLR products, or private label rights products. There are tons of them on the net. Some of them can even be downloaded for free. Do some research on the products and find one that solves a problem, or at least claims to, and is going to spark some interest. You’ve got to make some changes and make the product original and you’re basically ready to sell it.
In order to get paid you’ll need an account with PayPal if you don’t have one already, then set up a website somewhere, preferably free to you just to save money. If you’ve got the money and you’re feeling good about yourself, then create something flashy. I recommend looking at various products on Clickbank for ideas about how to set up your product’s site and sales copy. Your best bet is to hire some professionals on Odesk or something if you want to do all of it right. It’s not necessary but maybe it will help you convert some sales. The real key once you’re this far is to do some marketing. There are a TON of ways to promote your product, so I won’t get into them here, but I will suggest you consider renting an e-mail list from SRDS or buying some Google Adwords PPC ads. Either way, before you start to advertise anything at all you need to figure out the lifetime value of your customer because that’s going to tell you how much you should be spending on advertising. However, I’m no expert when it comes to product launches, so I recommend you consult with a professional or at least get help at places like the Warrior Forum for internet product launches.
Getting the word out is about the only way you’re going to sell something. It can’t just stagnate there while you email your buddies and tell them to check it out. If they know you personally they probably aren’t going to buy what you’re selling unless it’s out of sympathy. Really, what you need to do is start writing articles and posting them all over the place.
Step #6 – Article marketing
This form of marketing is one of the cheapest and best ways to start building awareness of what you’re doing. All you have to do is create articles and submit them to sites like Ezinearticles or Goarticles. Make sure they’re relevant and worth reading.
Step #7 – Create press releases.
They are a great way to get the word out and possibly pick up national media attention. Check out either PR Newswire or PRWeb. Both are excellent services.
If you don’t know how to do that then do some research or pay a professional (Google “press release writer” or “professional copywriter”). A press release that looks like you don’t know what you’re doing is going to tell people that you don’t know what you’re doing. Hit up forums associated with the product’s target audience. See if there are advertising opportunities on that site.
Step #8 Utilize all the free tools and resources that you can to spread the word to the masses about your site or product. The more traffic the more potential sales, the more word spreads and the more you can thank me for giving you the great idea.
Step #9 & 10 – WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG AHEAD: Follow me on Twitter and Subscribe to my newsletter