What is making money online today look like? is it hard? can anyone do it?
These are questions I frequently get asked so I created this post to help those that are new to making money online.
It’s no longer a secret that you can earn a full-time income from online ventures.
There are thousands of examples of people who have went on to become millionaires from one simple website.
They picked a niche and stuck with for years and years, until it grew into a massive company.
What is Making Money Online Today:
I’m not here to tell you if you follow my advice you will become a millionaire.
We have all heard those promises before and frankly we’re sick and tired of false promises.
But I am here to show you a simple path to online success.
One path many people use to make a serious amount of cash, live comfortably, and enjoy all the benefits that a location independent business has to offer.
So if you found yourself asking the question, “What is making money online today?” the answer is in this article.
Remember, Everyone Has to Start Somewhere:
There was a point when the creators of web giants like Google doubted the size of the company.
And I’m sure there were plenty of times where their team almost threw in the towel and gave up.
But they stuck with it.
All the information that you need to start an online business is right at your finger tips. But an online business won’t emerge from all the information, unless put in the hours.
Invest time into your business. Persist and it will be worth it.
With Online Business, You Earn While You Learn:
Rather than accumulating debt!
This simple strategy is nothing new and mind-blowing; it has been around for awhile.
So where can you begin?
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Making Money Online Today Means Freedom:
Making money online is freedom to work wherever you want in the world. With regular employment, very few people have the luxury of being able to travel whenever they please.
And if they do travel, its on company time.
If you despise the ball and chain lifestyle, starting an online business is the best decision you can make.
But its not just about freedom.
Its about a stress free life and not answering to anyone.
You’ll be your own boss. It’s a dream.
But it can be a reality, and plenty of people have done it.
So when people ask me, “What is making money online today?” I tell them its about freedom.
Freedom from…
- Bosses.
- Being stuck at work in one location.
- A Stringent schedule (work when you want).
- Income limitations.
In my opinion, that’s worth the world. But reaching that point isn’t easy!
There are multiple business models you can follow, and picking one can be a challenge.
I discuss one system below.
Selling Products on eBay or Amazon:
Anyone can make an account on these merchant websites.
You can even find drop-shippers (companies that will ship products for you) to handle the shipping details.
When working online, remember this:
Every online business model has one major problem. It is your job to solve that problem as best as you can.
The problem with selling on Amazon and eBay is inventory and shipping complications (fees, taxes, etc).
Most people throw in the towel when it comes to selling products online because they don’t know how to conduct research and they have no idea where to find wholesale distributors.
I admit, it can be difficult.
But there are always solutions.
A fast growing company like Alibaba can be a solution. This company makes it easy for merchants to find companies that mass-produce certain items.
Thousands of sellers on Amazon use this company to source their products. It can work for you too.
Now there are two problems you need to solve: one, find out what sells, and two; the shipping fees (these can eat up a huge percentage of your budget, especially since most of these products are shipped from China).
One of the easiest ways to see what is selling on Amazon or eBay is to simply browse through the listings.
Things to look for:
- How many merchants or selling this product?
- What is the average buy price?
- Are people buying these products often?
- Is there room in that niche for another seller?
- Can the product being sold be found on Alibaba?
Those are just some of the questions that you will need to ask when it comes to analyzing the marketplace.
For instance, if there are too many sellers, that niche is likely saturated, and it will be difficult to make sales. Then the next step is to find the source of these products.
It is surprisingly easy to find a supplier for most small products being sold on eBay and Amazon.
Sometimes you can even find the exact supplier that those sellers use!
Check Alibaba for a supplier and take note of the minimum price. Will you be able to make a profit from these products once the shipping and other fees have been deducted from the original price? If so, that’s awesome!
Next, order the products, test them out for quality and durability, and then post them online.
Is It That Simple?
Granted, I painted this business model with rather broad strokes, but it is a simple system, and the smaller problems can be easily solved.
So now you know what is making money online today and how you can use the same model to build a business.
Still, I realize that ordering batches of products from overseas, communicating with suppliers, handling shipping details, can be a struggle for most people.
In fact, I bet that all sounds like too much for you at this moment.
If you need more structured help, I would recommend you check out our top recommended training products for eCommerce.
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Need to Make Money Online Immediately?
Maybe all you need is some fast cash, and you already have a full-time job that takes up most of your time, none left to spend on creating a merchant business.
That’s okay.
If you need fast cash, look around your house.
I’m sure there is something that you can sell for some fast cash. You can then use that cash to invest in other ventures. There is really no limit to what you can do when you focus.
If you need a step by step guide to selling on eBay/Amazon, check out this post for some helpful pointers.
Of course, maybe you don’t like selling products online.
I understand, it’s not for everyone.
I did it, got tired of it, and now I sell online without every buying inventory or delivering products.
Sell Stuff Online With Little Risk:
Thankfully, there are plenty of other paths that you can take to make money online.
There is one path, the affiliate marketing path, which is incredibly low risk and simple.
This is what I now do to make full time income online. All that is needed is time but it can be incredibly profitable (this is the path that I chose).
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So it would be extremely beneficial for you to join an internet marketing training center.
One that has an active community where you can find like-minded people who are working on similar projects, everyone benefits from everyone.
What is Making Money Online to you today? What is your experience with eBay, Amazon, or affiliate marketing? Let me know in the comment section below.
Great article as always Todd, a lot of people ask themselves, “what is making money online”, what does it entail, is it easy or hard. But this is really a good summation of what money making opportunities are out there for most people.
I have been thinking about selling on amazon or ebay and I will be looking at Skip McGrath and his training programs. I really think combining content marketing, such as a blog, can really be a great way to bring free traffic to your affiliate or actual products you want to sell.
And as for your recommendation, Wealthy Affiliate, they have helped me and tons of online entrepreneurs (let’s call them fellow co-workers) create online businesses that make big money.
They’re easily the best training out there for internet marketing, establishing a strong foundation to your online business and offer constant updates to their training platform.
Great info, thanks Todd.
Hi Gino,
How nice to hear from you and thanks for your feedback. Making money online is really simple when you think about it. You must offer a service, product, advice, or something of value in order to make money.
The problem is that this topic gets clouded by so many misleading programs and/or down right scams. People see easy money and they start to salivate. But this is just not the truth when it comes down to make money online.
If you can lock on to some hot products and sell them on eBay or Amazon, that’s the easiest way to turn a quick profit. But it’s often difficult to find a continuous supply of hot products that fly off the virtual shelves, unless you make your own brand name product that is extremely successful.
However, this can be much more risky, time consuming, and costly.
For that reason, I would say taking the time to learn how to build SEO skills/websites to bring in natural traffic, is the easiest and lest expensive way to start making money online. The cool thing about it though, is that you can build an online business based on something you love, are passionate about, or have an intimate knowledge to share to others.
And as you continue to build it, it runs 24/7, and generate more traffic than a local business can see in 10 years. You can really create a money making machine that works as an asset for you.
Good to hear from you Gino,
Todd
Here are my opinions Todd.
Ebay is a great marketplace, but they will charge various fees before they pass you the profit. The nerve-wrecking calculation, if you ever get the chance to look into it, can range between 4 to 5 types of fees.
Amazon is also great, but my complaint is that not everyone can participate (that includes me) and the commission isn’t that superb when you think about the amount of time that you spend promoting a certain product,
Hence, my preferred choice would be private affiliate programs. You don’t have to pay for anything else except for your own website hosting or purchasing a product for review. Plus. they tend to offer better commissions than most affiliate networks too.
Google Search is great to research for this. Just type in “product” + “affiliate program” and you should be able see some lucrative opportunities within your niche.
Awesome Cathy,
Thanks for your feedback and favorite suggestion for what is making money online for you.
I didn’t have much fluctuations in my charges from eBay or Amazon when I sold there. But I think now days there are so many third party sellers on both selling platforms that make it tough to make any money.
But affiliate marketing, as you mention, has none of the risk and all of the rewards. I’m also not a big fan of affiliate marketing on Amazon because of their 4% commissions on the first 25 sales and then a 6 – 6.5% commissions thereafter.
So pretty small commissions. I would encourage affiliate marketers that are selling brand name products through content marketing to first look for an affiliate using the suggestion of product + affiliate program to look for the brand name product first before going the Amazon’s affiliate program.
The commissions are generally higher and the price is the same if not less than Amazon. Amazon is just so popular that everyone opts for using them. But the customer service and deliver is just as good with many of the brand name companies themselves.
For those that want to get started creating online income using affiliate marketing, the Wealthy Affiliate Training Center is the best training online, plus very economical to get started or just to try it out. Shoot it’s free to check out and start learning.
Great feedback and info Cathy, thanks.
Todd
Hi Todd,
I enjoyed your article on making money online. I have been tempted for a long time to try selling physical products online, but never really had the courage to do it.
Finding the right product to sell is the first challenge and you give some good tips on this. The Alibaba platform looks pretty amazing and is a huge marketplace, but as usual with everything online there seem to be scam artists there as well.
Not ready to take the risks, I decided to try affiliate marketing and although it’s a lot of work I really enjoy it and no problems with unsold inventory. I joined the Wealthy Affiliate training program which gives some awesome step by step lessons which make it easy to get started. So for me making money online is affiliate marketing.
Thanks for another great post.
Peter
Hi Peter,
I think you made the right choice going with affiliate marketing. I’m finding that the more I build out my affiliate site, the easier it is to match and surpass my online sales I made using Amazon and eBay together.
But what’s truly better is that I have no customer returns, no running off to the post office, and no issues dealing with the almighty Amazon if an issue comes up. I’m independent and left with more time on my hands to do other things that are important in my life.
So affiliate marketing is a great career, all’s you have to learn is the proper way to do it and that’s where the Wealthy Affiliate Training Center comes in. Even after taking their structured program, I still am a member because of the continuing education using their weekly webinars and my hosting (premier cloud hosting) for 5 sites comes to $30/mo.
Too easy.
Thanks again for your feedback Peter. What is making money online for me? Like you, it’s affiliate marketing.
Todd
Hey Todd,
This is another really great post. What is making money online – selling products in some form, right? Either physical products (with somewhat higher risk/higher reward) or affiliate marketing them for commissions.
I still think there are a lot of myths out there about making money online and a lot of people think that it is all a scam, so it is great to read articles such as this that shed some light! 🙂
When I first started to look for ways to make money from the Internet, I looked into drop-shipping, but I found it a bit risky and wasn’t very successful. Even trying to sell product via Amazon didn’t really resonate with me. The tool you suggest Alibaba sound like it could be very helpful though.
It wasn’t until I discovered Wealthy Affiliate and started learning about affiliate marketing that I felt I had finally found my niche and started to have some success! 🙂
Great post!
~John
Hi John,
Thanks for your feedback and insights as always. I too started with drop-shipping and figured out the process and had success, I just didn’t like the extra work of customer service, dealing with suppliers, and having customer returns. I too didn’t like the risk as well.
But a lot of people do make good money importing and drop-shipping and combine that with selling on Amazon and eBay.
And what’s nice about that is the amount of traffic you can see, but on the flip side, you also have much more competition and inherint risk.
Affiliate marketing has virtually no risk, you just have to learn how to manage a website (super easy these days) and then build content in a structured manner to build traffic which leads to sales. And using the Wealthy Affiliate Training Center, it’s easy to learn these skills.
Once you learn these skills, you’re not reliant on Amazon or eBay, you just continually build your traffic and that turns into lots of sales.
Glad you enjoyed the post John and good to hear from you.
What is making money online to me? Affiliate marketing without a doubt. Well, unless you wanted to do both affiliate marketing and drop-shipping. Now there’s an idea… 😉
Cheers,
Todd