When we talk about the different ways to make money online, the hard truth is that most people who take the dive into building a website and selling their advice, products or services don't make much money. In fact, according to a survey by Business Know How, almost 30 percent of small businesses in general don't make more than $10,000 per year. In short, there are loads of traditionally low income online jobs.
This obviously incorporates feedback from both offline and online businesses, but it gives us a good idea that starting your own business is quite difficult. Don't let that discourage you though, because the returns are often huge if you can figure out a niche, dominate it and scale the online business to turn out a decent profit.
Sometimes you just want to create a little side income by renting out your home through AirBnB or by taking online surveys, and this is all fine and dandy, but it's quite difficult to turn these income sources into full-time careers.
However, with things like blogging, app design, and referring affiliate products you can actually make big returns. Once again, on average, these online jobs end with little cash flow, but if you make some changes and truly focus on the things that matter, you can make a career out of your passion.
Let's take a look at some traditionally low revenue jobs and figure out how to actually make a nice return.
Blogging
Lifehacker reports that over half of the ProBlogger readers make less than $100 per month. Think about that. These are the people who diligently follow the largest site that teaches people how to make money blogging.
The sad truth is that you need to put in loads of work in order to make money blogging, but there are actually some ways to really improve your chances and turn a passion you have into something nice. In fact, focusing on a niche passion is usually the best way to go about making big money.
Here are some ways to turn you luck around if you are struggling with generating income for your blog:
- Choose a niche that has revenue potential, but not many people have tapped into.
- Focus on making yourself an expert, dominating the market by teaching, building new businesses and mentoring others.
- Realize that a blog is often a launching pad for new opportunities. You may not make direct money with your writing but it can lead to book deals, a forum that makes money, sales for other products, speaking gigs and more.
- Consider looking at any ads on your site and removing them. If you make lots of money from them, then leave them on, but if not, they are just ticking off your readers.
- Build a sales funnel that leads to big-ticket items. Create a book series or video guide on photography and then use your blog to funnel people towards those items.
- Think about finding or building products that sell for lots of money. Some of the most successful blogs sell items for tens of thousands of dollars.
- Get out there and write content for other sites. Developing content for your site without any readers is like teaching an empty classroom.
Writing Reviews and Referring Affiliate Products
Affiliate marketing usually involves creating a blog, writing reviews and becoming an expert in a few particular areas. Then you create affiliate links to these products so people can click through and give you a little cut whenever they buy.
Tying into blogging, you need a nice followership to actually make money with this, but if you do it right, like Brain Pickings, you can even make millions of dollars.
Here are some tips:
- Create in-depth, extremely unique content that can't be found anywhere else.
- Make sure every product you recommend is relevant to the readers on your site.
- Stay up-to-date on the newest products in your market so that your readers are the first ones to know about them.
- Spend lots of time improving your SEO. Locate the keywords that people search for in your market and try to move up gradually. These keywords are essential for selling affiliate products.
Managing a Community
Once again, an online community usually ties into a blogging platform. The cool thing about a community is that it's one of the best ways to make money online. If you become a credible source for people to interact with each other online, they will be more than willing to pay for upgrades and additional content.
Some community options include forums, member sites, exclusive content and even job boards.
Here are some ways to actually make money off of a community:
- Create a pay wall on your blog that shows people are missing out on premium content.
- Develop extensive classes on a niche.
- Link a relevant eCommerce page to your forum.
- Charge people to become members on your forum or premium site area. (Consider the monthly model for recurring income.)
- Ads usually work well on forums.
Selling Products Through eCommerce
Sure, you might see all the eCommerce businesses that go on Shark Tank and think that it's just a breeze, but building an eCommerce site is extremely tough. Most sites get shut down within the first few years, but there are a few ways to ensure that you stand out:
- Sell a completely unique product that you created yourself.
- Don't just stick to your own site. Sell on Amazon, Etsy and even eBay.
- Automate every area possible to focus on other tasks in your business.
- Create product listings that show videos, reviews, different image angles and a creative description.
- Always use A/B testing to see which areas of the site can be improved.
- Work like crazy on your SEO.
Selling Your Services
Selling services brings together the offline and online parts of small businesses. You might be marketing a driveway sealing, real estate or housekeeping business. Regardless, your services are competing with numerous other businesses in the world.
Here are some tips to stand out:
- Focus on the local market, because this is how people search for services.
- Think about the main reason you are different from the rest of the market. Market this like crazy. Maybe you offer better customer service or additional how-to videos on your site. Becoming an expert and mentor is usually a great way to differentiate.
- Make sure you offer just about every contact method, such as email, live chat, phone and social media. This is how you grab new clients.
- Personalize your website and include numerous photos and other media to show that you are there to help.
Let us know in the comments section if you manage to make a nice living with any of these traditionally low income online jobs. Selling your services typically generates more revenue depending on your business, but all small businesses have trouble in this digital age. Do you have any other tips for people trying to make money online?
Image Sources from flickr: alamosbasement, Annie Mole
