Earning money in 2012
Filling out online surveys
Pros: Can start straight away, open to most people, no investment of time/money needed
Cons: Limited payouts, shortage of surveys for certain demographics, sometimes you get paid in credit not cash
There are lots of sites offering payment for filling out surveys online but I’m going to recommend just a few, Valued Opinions, MySurvey and Justtheanswer. These three all have a good reputation for paying on time and supplying plenty of surveys to fill out. The payout per survey will vary from 10p to £3.00 and how many you get offered will depend on your profile i.e. your job/gender/age/location so surveys can be hit and miss. I think the most you can realistically make is around £200 a year which doesn’t exactly get my pulse racing but could appeal to some.
Writing content
Pros: Very scalable – write more content and you make more, huge demand
Cons: You won’t earn much in the beginning, time consuming
I’ve spoken about this before on EarningMoneyOnline but most people are unaware of it. One of the main building blocks of any website is content and with 1000s of new sites being created every day there’s a huge demand for articles/blog posts and general text to go on these sites. Some people may think “I’m not good at writing” but even so there is a demand for all levels of content and if you’re a native English speaker you will definitely get work. Content is priced per word and how much you earn will depend on your reputation and the quality you produce. To start with you will probably write for 1p per word and you can get it up to 3 – 4p if you’re good, if you can get the work you could easily be making £20 – £30 a day. To get jobs you have 2 options, go to an agency like TextBroker who will get you writing jobs but take a cut or you can promote yourself on webmaster forums like DigitalPoint or Warrior forum to webmasters who need content. Remember if you build up a reputation as a reliable writer then webmasters will keep coming back for more and you won’t have to bid/look for work.
Freelancing web design/seo/programming
Pros: Make much more money than surveys or article writing, skills that will last for years
Cons: Lots of competition, you need to have a real skill
I bet the title of this has already put some people off! It’s important to realise that there are many different levels of web design/programming/marketing and while all require you to have that skill (to some extent) often the skill isn’t a difficult one to learn. Since many businesses are outsourcing these kinds of tasks freelancing sites like elance, freelancer and fiver (all jobs are $5 lol) have sprung up which allow employers to post projects which freelancers then bid on. Now the main issue is do you have a skill that you can sell, and if not what would it take to learn one? This is very difficult to say as I don’t know your circumstances but the best route would be to try out one of those “for dummies” books as I learnt php in around a week with one (the basics). Also remember the goal with this type of work is the same as the last example, you want to build up a reputation with clients so that eventually they can give you steady work and you don’t have to bid on the freelance sites (they can be a pain).
Niche affiliate marketing
Pros: Unlimited earnings, your own boss, work on projects your interested in, no technical knowledge required
Cons: Some investment of time and money
I’ve saved the best until last (in my opinion) and it’s the one I’ve talked most about on this blog. In short affiliate marketing is the process of building small niche websites which are used to attract traffic (website visitors). Because the website is geared around a specific subject the traffic is valuable to advertisers who will pay commission on the sales we generate for them. Ok so the above statement may be simplifying things a little as the main job is getting people to the site, but the unique aspect of this system is that a successful website can be making you money even when you sleep. If you are interested in this method then I will be bringing out a new and improved ebook very soon which explains exactly how to build a website (with no technical knowledge) and get it earning money fast.
Ok so that’s 4 great ways anyone can make money from the internet in 2012, there’s something here for people of all skill levels, time and financial constraints. As with everything your results will depend on how much you’re prepared to put into any system, there’s a reason people filling out surveys are only getting 50p a time, anyone can do it. Until next time…
PS. If you’re looking for motivation check out the video below by Anthony Robbins, it’s about how Sylvester Stallone got the movie Rocky made, amazing stuff.
Why start a website and how much can you make?
The how much and how long question is one that I get regularly and one that’s impossible to answer. The true answer is “as long as it takes” but to most people this is not acceptable though I suppose it makes sense when there are so many scammers out their promising riches down the road. For me part of the problem is that many people are finding this site that are just looking for generic advice on how to earn money online without any clear direction on how to do it. I mean the main focus of people seems to be on making money regardless of the method which to me doesn’t make sense. The method is central to everything, otherwise why not just rob a bank? (If banks still had any money).
There are obviously some costs to starting a website like:
- Domain name - This is the actual name of your site and is £10 for two years if you’re buying .co.uk or around £20 if you want a .com
- Web hosting – Your site needs to be stored somewhere so people all over the world can access it (even when you’re sleepingJ ) and will cost around £5 – £10 a month. There are free hosts but I don’t advise using them as they can be unreliable, you get what you pay for.
So those are the only up-front costs that you can’t avoid, there are other things some people decide to spend on like professional site design or custom features but for my method these extras aren’t really necessary. This is because when I build a site it’s really only about the content and not complex ecommerce systems etc.
Another benefit to building simple content driven websites is that no web-design/programming experience is required. Believe it or not the host I use allows me to have a new site up and running with a full content management system and design in about 10 minutes, it’s kinda amazing when you think about it. Don’t get me wrong you still have to create the content and then promote the site but from a technical point of view getting started is no harder than installing Microsoft Word!
So as I’ve outlined there’s really no financial risk to starting a website to make some extra money, especially when you compare it to a bricks and mortar business. The only risk is your own time and effort but still for many people this risk is too much. What if it doesn’t work and I end up wasting all this time? Well that’s part of the reason everyone isn’t making a living online, effort and risk are just part of the game.
Another problem is the time it takes for a website to become successful because on the internet if your new you’re really no-one. This is because so many new sites get started every day and to be honest there’s a lot of sites and blogs saying the same thing, how will you stand out from the crowd and get noticed? Remember there’s only room in any market/niche for a certain number of people to succeed and earn real money so are you prepared to work harder and smarter than your competitors.
Even with the hurdles listed above I really believe that for someone working from home or trying to earn some extra cash with no investment websites and internet marketing could be the answer. You see for most people the main reason they are trying to make some extra money is that they don’t have any in the first place. Even if you wanted to get a loan to start up your own business good luck going to your bank.
So obviously the above isn’t all you need to succeed, patience time and effort need to be in great supply too, but isn’t that the case with anything? As mentioned before I am thinking about doing some kind of eBook on my exact method because there’s way too much to cover in a single post or even in a series of posts. That doesn’t mean creating a successful website is a complex business, there’s definitely work involved but so much of what’s required is just basic things repeated over.
That’s it for this post, maybe you’re not convinced yet what’s possible in the online world because it’s so different than everything else you know. But in my opinion the Internets only going to get bigger and better, the time to learn this business is now.
